Reopening some states may cause coronavirus spikes in neighboring areas, experts warn

Reopening states from coronavirus lockdowns could lead to cases in other states, media outlets reported.

Texas plans on reopening retail stores, restaurants, malls and movie theaters on Friday, The New York Times reported. Colorado is also allowing some businesses to open on Monday, according to The New York Times.

After Georgia reopened many businesses, a model from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology projects that the state’s death rate could double, The Hill reported.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that restaurants and stores will be allowed to open on Monday at 25% capacity depending on if the local government permits it, The Associated Press reported.

Lifting lockdowns could have an effect on not only the death rate in the state but in neighboring communities as well, experts said.

“I do believe we are going to see additional surges of cases from this epidemic, and that will not be contained within a state,” public health preparedness expert Crystal Watson from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security told STAT News. “So neighboring states and perhaps states across the country and countries across the world are going to have cases imported from those outbreaks.”

Reopening states could infect new people and in turn, spread to other states as they begin to travel again, according to STAT News.

“That’s like having a peeing section in the swimming pool,” Jeffrey Duchin, a public health official in Seattle, said during a panel discussion. Duchin also cited the phrase, “It doesn’t stay where you started.”

Politicians have also weighed in on reopening states.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tweeted on April 21: “I worry that our friends and neighbors in Georgia are going too fast too soon.”

“We respect Georgia’s right to determine its own fate, but we are all in this together,” Graham continued. “What happens in Georgia will impact us in South Carolina.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Reopening some states may cause coronavirus spikes in neighboring areas, experts warn."