States are releasing their own tailored plans to reopen economies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, days after Georgia announced it would begin to loosen restrictions on businesses that include beauty salons, gyms, bowling alleys, and tattoo parlors.
Restaurants in the metro Atlanta region have since Monday been able to accept customers to eat inside, as long as the businesses follow a slate of 39 provisions set up by the state government. All staff must wear masks, only 10 customers are allowed per 500 square feet of floor space, and no more than six diners per table are allowed.
Georgia’s shelter-in-place order is set to expire on Thursday. And while Republican Gov. Brian Kemp took criticism from fellow governors, and eventually President Trump, for moving forward with his state plan, demands by the public to begin loosening restrictions persisted.
Statewide stay-at-home orders in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Nevada, and Texas are expected to expire on Thursday. While Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee are all partially reopening this week.
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Each state, however, has tailored the lifting of its regulations in different ways. Some businesses will be allowed to open in some states while others remain closed. Houses of worship will begin to open as well as sports arenas and theaters, but strict social distancing in all instances will continue.
The remaining states will keep original stay-at-home orders and expiration dates intact. Among the most stringent is Virginia, where the restrictions run until June 10.
“I’ve always thought the decision to close down was a lot easier than it is to open up because,” University of Virginia’s Dr. Ray Scheppach, a former executive director of the National Governors Association, told the Washington Examiner. “As things got worse, most of the states decided to close down. But now coming down, I think there’s no good benchmark.”
Three regional state groupings have already formed to coordinate reopenings — in the Northeast, Pacific Northwest, and the Midwest.
“Part of those make a lot of sense because in some of them there are huge commuting patterns like Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, clearly Kentucky, Ohio, around Cincinnati. But it also means that they’re going to coordinate a lot,” Scheppach said.
George Mason University political science professor Frank Shafroth cautions the governors’ biggest challenge will be deciding what is allowed to open first as they lift the restrictions.
“The hard governing challenge is for each governor to be a Solomon and determine what constitutes an essential business — and this at a time when President Trump has stated that keeping the loss of American lives under 200,000 would constitute a ‘very good job,’” Shafroth told the Washington Examiner.
