Some nations inch toward reopening as virus deaths rise - Times of India

BEIJING: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to return to work after recovering from the coronavirus , his office said Sunday, as US states and nations around the world took divergent paths on when to reopen their economies and communities. The number of deaths officially attributed to the new coronavirus has topped 200,000 globally, a figure widely believed to understate the actual total. While some U.S. states eased restrictions, Hawaii extended its stay-at-home order until the end of May, and California police closed a park because it got too crowded. Even as aides develop plans to shift President Donald Trump 's public emphasis from the virus to addressing the economic crisis it has caused, Dr. Anthony Fauci at the U.S. National Institutes of Health warned against moving too quickly. Societies are navigating an uncertain path between preventing a resurgence of the virus and providing economic and psychological relief for people cooped up at home. The Chinese city of of Wuhan, where the pandemic began, said that all major construction projects have resumed in a push to restart factory production and other economic activity after a 2 1/2 month lockdown. Police in Pacific Grove, about 85 miles (135 kilometers) south of San Francisco, said they had to close the picturesque Lovers Point Park and Beach because of a lack of social distancing. Georgia and Oklahoma allowed salons, spas and barbershops to reopen, while Alaska cleared the way for restaurants to resume dine-in service and retail shops and other businesses to open their doors, all with limitations. In Texas, Allison Scott said most customers of her women's clothing store in a Dallas shopping mall seem to feel more comfortable having their purchases shipped. A survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found Americans overwhelmingly support stay-at-home measures and other efforts to prevent the spread of the virus.