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US correspondent Cameron Stewart says Michigan residents who are protesting over social distancing restrictions show the conflict between rural and metropolitan America right now.

Mr Cameron told Sky News “a lot of rural areas in America are not affected very badly by the virus and they are questioning why the economy is effectively stopped”.

He said Michigan was a prime example of the conflict between rural and metropolitan regions as Detroit has been heavily impacted by the virus while the rural areas of the state were not affected as severely.

“That is the issue that Donald Trump is dealing with in the White House, how much of the country does he open, what parts of the country and what sort of timetable are we looking at,” he said.

“Trump is basically saying we should open the country in a phased way from May 1”.

Mr Cameron said that despite what Trump claimed, the decision to reopen was ultimately up to the state governors.

In New Jersey and New York “there is no way they are going to relax social distancing laws or anything like that in the foreseeable future because the death toll is simply too high, he said.

Image: AP