In a roller-coaster week of reversals and contradictions, governors representing half the nation's population have organized three separate clusters of states each working together on the details of relaunching businesses, schools and events while avoiding a resurgence of infections.

President Donald Trumps told governors to “call your own shots” on lifting stay-at-home orders once the coronavirus threat subsides. But then he took to Twitter to push some to reopen their economies quickly and tell them it was their job to ramp up testing.

The pacts have formed among states mostly with Democratic governors on the West Coast, around the Great Lakes and in the densely populated Northeast, covering several big metropolitan areas that cross state lines, including New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Others are going their own way, including the second most populous state — Texas — where Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday that he would ease some pandemic-related restrictions next week. Florida, another state with a huge population, is also not in an alliance.

California, Oregon and Washington state have teamed up, and pacts have formed among Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island as well as Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Their efforts are starting in the shadows of high-profile disputes between some governors and Trump, whose message has changed frequently during the pandemic. The partnerships were announced as Trump asserted “total authority" over when states lift restrictions.

Here are the most recent developments:

  • Supporters of President Trump in states like Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia ignore social distancing regulations to put pressure on governors to ease lockdown orders.
  • President Trump defended his support for civil unrest against states that are implementing social distancing practices—saying protesters who have gathered to demand an end to stay-at-home orders are “very responsible people.”
  • Hospitals and state health departments say they've been scouring the globe to find swabs and lab chemicals used for coronavirus testing, competing against each other in a system New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo described as “mayhem."
  • Scant testing of detained immigrants for the novel coronavirus may be spreading the disease through the United States’ sprawling system of detention centers, advocates say.
  • More than 160 South Koreans have tested positive a second time for the coronavirus, a development that suggests the disease may have a longer shelf life than expected.
  • The Navy’s top admiral will soon decide the fate of the ship captain who was fired after pleading for his superiors to move faster to safeguard his coronavirus-infected crew on the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
  • An Israeli hospital offers families of coronavirus patients the opportunity to say goodbye to their dying loved ones in person. That's in contrast to many hospitals around the world that are preventing final family visits as a precaution against the virus.
  • The racial impact of COVID-19 is growing starker as more data emerges. Black Americans are outlining demands to address the devastation.
  • A group of 13 countries including Britain, Italy and Germany has called for global cooperation to lessen the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Japan has reported 556 new cases of the coronavirus, surpassing the total of 10,000 about three months after the first case was detected in the country. Hospitals in Japan are increasingly turning away sick people in ambulances as the country braces for a surge in coronavirus infections.
  • Iran allows some businesses in the capital and nearby towns to re-open after weeks of lockdown aimed at containing the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East.

For more summaries and full reports, please select from the articles below. Scroll further for helpful tips, a guide to coping, maps tracking virus spread, and a photo gallery following an Italian nurse on the front lines of the virus fight.

Read on for tips on handling money and maintaining social distancing:

This coverage is being provided free as a public service to our readers during the coronavirus pandemic. Please support local journalism by subscribing.

Virus ward nurse: "They are patients who enter into your soul”

Become a #ThisIsTucson member! Your contribution helps our team bring you stories that keep you connected to the community. Become a member today.