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The ideas and criteria in the guidance are not new; parts of it were embedded in earlier plans by Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, and Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But those plans were conservative, saying that states could reopen once they had robust testing capacity, enough equipment to protect health care workers and the means to reach out to anyone who was exposed to the virus to warn them to isolate, a process known as contact tracing.

Reopening before those issues are resolved, though, risks endangering the few places that have managed to dodge the virus, and would be accompanied by significant scientific concerns:

Testing is still spotty. Most of the country is not conducting nearly enough testing to track the virus in a way that would allow Americans to return to work safely. Without widespread testing and surveillance, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York, “we won’t be able to quickly identify and isolate cases in which the patients are presymptomatic or asymptomatic, and thus community transmission could be re-established.”

Waiting periods of 14 days are required. States wishing to loosen rules are asked to meet certain criteria every two weeks. But if someone were infected toward the end of the 14th day, it is possible he or she could seed an outbreak as restrictions were lifted.

Shortages of protective equipment persist. Communities in which restrictions are eased will be at greater risk for outbreaks. Mr. Trump has said that the federal government has distributed millions of masks, gloves and gowns to health care workers, but those on the front lines say they are still put in harm’s way because of shortages of personal protective equipment. “People are still dying,” said Zenei Cortez, president of National Nurses United, the country’s largest nurses’ union. “This is no time pat ourselves on the back and say the emergency is over.”