Mississippi is facing both an economic and a public health crisis because of the coronavirus pandemic, and it's important to reopen the businesses that have remained shuttered, Gov. Tate Reeves said Tuesday.
"We are very intelligently moving forward, based upon data, to reopen our economy," the Republican governor told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "We understand that we have a public health crisis. We are going to have approximately 239 fatalities from this virus. In addition to that, we have 150,000 Mississippians that are out of work and lost their job over the last 4 to 5 weeks and we have not only a public health crisis but economic crisis as well and we have to get our economy moving again."
Retail operations already opened on Monday, and the state is looking at other ways to open up entities such as barbershops, casinos, and more, he added.
"We want to make sure we do it in a safe, responsible way and make sure the cases will not spike," said Reeves. "We believe that we are in a good spot as it relates to that and we have to keep reopening the economy and focus on public health issues that are before us."
However, people in Mississippi are ready to "get out and about," said Reeves. "They are ready to go back to work, and we as a state are ready to do our part to grow America's economy again."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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