I think there's a lot of bluster behind Dr. Trump's threat. Think about this - how many delegates would really feel good and feel safe hanging out for several days in a 20,000 seat or whatever size arena and doing a bunch of side partying with fellow delegates? You wonder if they think the dangers will...puff one day it'll be gone as the good doctor says, and it'll coincide with his crowning as the GOP candidate?

Yes, a lot of bluster & bullying, but his disciples don't really buy that COVID19 exists or that social distancing makes a difference. The same people that are marching on state capitols shoulder to shoulder & ignoring mask & distancing policies in the newly re-opened states might love cheering him on in a crowded venue. Trump's invincible & so are they or so they believe. Once again, it's Trump's obsession w/numbers. He doesn't want to look out into a 50% capacity arena (or worse have TV camera shots of one); he wants 110% so he can have a crowd even larger than his inauguration (not physically possible except in his mind).

Question, cyclone - Can the RNC have attendees sign some sort of a liability waiver if those who choose to attend and contract Covid so that the RNC doesn't take responsibility? Same question for NC?

Question, cyclone - Can the RNC have attendees sign some sort of a liability waiver if those who choose to attend and contract Covid so that the RNC doesn't take responsibility? Same question for NC?

Short answer: NO. You can't consent to something that a state has mandated against.

So a lot to ponder.

Who knows where the pandemic will be at time of lead up to and during time frame of convention. How many more cases and deaths? What will be the culture in 2 months - rebel for "freedom" vs believe in science and take precautions of remaining healthy?

The state has to be willing to allow a convention a couple months from now. A lot of logistics goes into these events. Planning has to occur with contingencies in place. If NC says no, can another state other than Trump's state of mind host a convention in this time frame?

Delegates attend at their own risk. If they do attend, will they do social distancing and wear masks. Think about fearless leader not wearing a mask and 90 + pct of the audience doing this - not an optic that Trump would want because it would show an acknowledgement of reality & not the hoax he wanted America to believe and that it hasn't disappeared as he said it would. Or would the audience just play follow the leader and do as he does?

If delegates attend, and numbers contract Covid, where does this leave Trump & GOP? These delegates will go running for medical help knowing they risked their own health and safety to attend an event probably too early in the cycle.

Question, cyclone - Can the RNC have attendees sign some sort of a liability waiver if those who choose to attend and contract Covid so that the RNC doesn't take responsibility? Same question for NC?

Short answer: NO. You can't consent to something that a state has mandated against.

Sorry for the follow up, but take the state out of the equation if this is possible. If NC or any other state has not mandated against, then is there liability or liability waiver potential for RNC given the live pandemic and known risks? If answer = yes, is this something a political party would consider for an event like this or practical?

Or maybe this is just too hypothetical.

"I love the Great State of North Carolina, so much so that I insisted on having the Republican National Convention in Charlotte at the end of August," Trump said in a series of tweets. "Unfortunately, Democrat Governor, @RoyCooperNC is still in Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed full attendance in the Arena. In other words, we would be spending millions of dollars building the Arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space."

Yes, he loves the state of North Carolina so much that he wants the citizens to endanger their lives to satisfy his ego by allowing "full attendance in the Arena."

WTF is "Shutdown mood"??

Sorry for the follow up, but take the state out of the equation if this is possible. If NC or any other state has not mandated against, then is there liability or liability waiver potential for RNC given the live pandemic and known risks? If answer = yes, is this something a political party would consider for an event like this or practical?

Or maybe this is just too hypothetical.

You've hit upon hot legal topics. Not a day goes by that there isn't a webinar by the ABA, state, or city bar association addressing some aspect of COVID19 - liability, force majeur, enforceability & indemnification of leases, contracts & insurance, impossibility & conflicts between international laws. I got a notice for one this week re the the question of criminal liability (negligence to manslaughter) should someone intentionally fail to disclose their testing status & knowingly put themselves in a position to infect others (much like not disclosing HIV status to a potential sex partner).

A state is always going to have a compelling interest in protecting its occupants. National political conventions have the unique circumstance of people coming into the city/state from all 50 states plus territories all of which have different COVID19 statistics & policies over a varying amount of time & staying for varying duration. That alone increases risk to a state's citizens exponentially. There's no way (so far) to absolutely identify to a judicial standard how a person contracted COVID19 at a conference - the main events, a hospitality suite, the flight out, shuttle bus ride from the airport, hotel, restaurant, rental car, or a person - so a blanket waiver for the sponsor (the RNC) would essentially fail.

Although there are projections on which national, state, & local leadership in government & private sectors rely for short-term planning, there aren't any that I know of that can guarantee that social distancing wouldn't apply to any specific venue in late August given the broad range of characteristics of attendees.

So a lot to ponder.

Who knows where the pandemic will be at time of lead up to and during time frame of convention. How many more cases and deaths? What will be the culture in 2 months - rebel for "freedom" vs believe in science and take precautions of remaining healthy?

The state has to be willing to allow a convention a couple months from now. A lot of logistics goes into these events. Planning has to occur with contingencies in place. If NC says no, can another state other than Trump's state of mind host a convention in this time frame?

We're talking Trump & bluster. The RNC has budgeted for the convention. Trump - the great dealmaker - is acting like he's personally negotiating a lease where for "millions" in buildout, the "gate" is guaranteed. (The "gate" in this case is asses in seats for TV cameras).

The threshold of capacity is set by whatever the state's policy is for COVID19 statistics. Unless a state like TX says "we're open at 100% capacity no matter how many new cases, hospitalizations, & deaths," a state is going to have some capacity cap that isn't predictable now for late August. As I understand it, NC hasn't said it's not holding the convention; it's said the capacity of the arena in August is undetermined.

There are some people here who may know just how quickly & costly it would be to turn an arena into a convention site & back again given that stages/sets are built/struck all the time for shows.

So a lot to ponder.

Who knows where the pandemic will be at time of lead up to and during time frame of convention. How many more cases and deaths? What will be the culture in 2 months - rebel for "freedom" vs believe in science and take precautions of remaining healthy?

The state has to be willing to allow a convention a couple months from now. A lot of logistics goes into these events. Planning has to occur with contingencies in place. If NC says no, can another state other than Trump's state of mind host a convention in this time frame?

We're talking Trump & bluster. The RNC has budgeted for the convention. Trump - the great dealmaker - is acting like he's personally negotiating a lease where for "millions" in buildout, the "gate" is guaranteed. (The "gate" in this case is asses in seats for TV cameras).

The threshold of capacity is set by whatever the state's policy is for COVID19 statistics. Unless a state like TX says "we're open at 100% capacity no matter how many new cases, hospitalizations, & deaths," a state is going to have some capacity cap that isn't predictable now for late August. As I understand it, NC hasn't said it's not holding the convention; it's said the capacity of the arena in August is undetermined.

There are some people here who may know just how quickly & costly it would be to turn an arena into a convention site & back again given that stages/sets are built/struck all the time for shows.

If they can't have full capacity, then they can always talk to Clint Eastwood about addressing empty chairs during a Republican conversation.

The 805 started opening up today - Phase 2. We'll see. Right now, I'll just stick to going to the supermarkets along with a few restaurants for take out. Might take my truck to the car wash.

Just hope everyone out and about is safe and not stupid. The operative word is "hope"... 🙁

Went today to a market in Hawkinsville (about 35 miles from here) to replenish the meat supply. They require masks to enter, provide gloves to those who don't have them, and allow only 10 customers in the store at one time. All employees wear masks and gloves.
You get a personal sales rep at the door and he/she handles the transactions from start to walking it to the register.

I feel that as businesses open up again, that's the policy they should enforce.

Rusty--If you know how to get to Hawkinsville, go to M&T Meats. My wife declared we are no longer going out to get steaks.

Lets hope your meats were not infected by covid19 infected workers.

Well Pops, even if you get pork with the trichinosis cysts in it, if you cook it right, you don't get hurt.

How was your ham sandwich the other day? You do know that hogs like to roll in their own crap and eat garbage?
But they do make tasty sausage.

I get the argument that not all masks are effective as others, and since there are still shortages, the health workers should get the best ones.

What I don't get is acting like being asked to wear a mask is like having your foot amputated. It may not be proven to stop every case of transmission, it may never be PROVEN that they stop any transmission. However, it is not hard to put on a mask when you go inside a public place. It just isn't hard to do. If there is a chance that you may be an asymptomatic carrier, which is possible unless you get tested every day, it really is the right thing to do. If you would want an ER nurse who may have just treated someone with this or any other contagion to wear a mask around you if you had to go to the ER, you should really want to wear a mask around other people.

It is not control of the masses, if nobody gets fined or imprisoned for not doing it, which they don't. It is basically a request of decency.

I don't wear a mask in public because I have been forced to, I wear one because I choose to be thoughtful of the possibility that I could unknowingly spread this virus.

I think of the unbelievable guilt of the staff members who think they may have been the ones to bring it into a nursing home. I couldn't live with myself if I got someone sick because I thought wearing a mask was too much hassle.

Even if masks just are a visual reminder that things are not normal and social distancing which is proven to help should be followed, then wearing masks can help.

I feel like a lot (not all) of the protests across the board have been for the "freedom to not really give a sh!t about anyone else" or to prove that "nobody controls me".

I don't want people to be controlled by wearing masks in public, I would appreciate them to have the self-control to wear masks in public.

What I don't get is acting like being asked to wear a mask is like having your foot amputated.

100%. I've never understood the downside of wearing a mask.

The only inconvenience I've come up w/is that the ill-mannered will essentially be forced to cover their sneezes & coughs & be unable to use the public sidewalks as their personal spitting ground. Beyond that, I've got nothing.

For the past 10 days Ohio is still in the 8000-9000 daily test range. Supposedly we have the capacity with the machines to run over 20,000 a day, but the components and the labor to run them is still lacking. The national guard is going to test all nursing home staff and residents who may've been exposed or suspected of being exposed in the coming days so will have to see if that effects the overall testing number. We have almost 1000 nursing homes.

New daily cases continue to range between 500-600. We continue to have about 900 patients a day in the hospital and ICU patients of 313 is the lowest it's been in 2 months. Daily deaths continue to be about 40 per day with the 7 day average sometimes dipping lower and sometimes jumping higher.

My county is seeing consistent new cases in the 14-16 range, about half of what it was 3 weeks ago. Hospitalizations are ticking up to about 3 a day now, the highest it's been since May 1. We had been about 1.5 to 2 per day just a week or two ago. Deaths continue at about 2-3 a day, down from 5-6 a day earlier this month.

This week I heard:

According to some "experts" reporting for Journal Science said 6' distance might not be enough, but wear masks.

Then the WHO says if you are healthy you only need to wear a mask if you are caring for somebody with covid.

And Dr Fauci says we might have a deployable vaccine by November-December, which when Trump has suggested that he got laughed at and Fauci himself has said repeatedly that most likely would take 12-18 months, or longer to develop.

So while everyone else is listening to the experts you can wake me up when they know what the hell they are talking about.

We're talking Trump & bluster. The RNC has budgeted for the convention. Trump - the great dealmaker - is acting like he's personally negotiating a lease where for "millions" in buildout, the "gate" is guaranteed. (The "gate" in this case is asses in seats for TV cameras).

The threshold of capacity is set by whatever the state's policy is for COVID19 statistics. Unless a state like TX says "we're open at 100% capacity no matter how many new cases, hospitalizations, & deaths," a state is going to have some capacity cap that isn't predictable now for late August. As I understand it, NC hasn't said it's not holding the convention; it's said the capacity of the arena in August is undetermined.

If they can't have full capacity, then they can always talk to Clint Eastwood about addressing empty chairs during a Republican conversation.

Perhaps Trump should make that call since "his" portion of the convention - the acceptance speech which is all he cares about anyway - is going to be made elsewhere. The RNC is contractually bound & will conduct convention business in Charlotte NC. Scouts have been dispatched to Nashville, Las Vegas, Jacksonville, Orlando, & "various sites in GA." We know the mayor of Las Vegas doesn't care about COVID19 precautions from her previous statements nor does the governor of GA so looks like they're frontrunners.

All this to feed Trump's ego. How can Trump accept the nomination in one place when the delegates are conducting business in another? Or is he just planning a rally to a public arena in another city? He might as well accept from the Rose Garden.

My wife and I were going to go out to eat tonight for the first time in months. Planned to sit outside, but it rained so we may do it tomorrow or wait til next week.

I booked a flight later this month. Should be interesting. My Mom flew home from Florida a couple weeks ago. She said her plane was fairly full with people in middle seats although nobody sat next to her. Everyone wore a mask, sounded like everyone came with their own, but the airline would've handed them out if anyone didn't have one. They boarded the back rows of the plane first in 5 row blocks. She said everything seemed to go well until at the end when everyone stands up to get their overhead bags and wait until they open the doors to get off, that was just like it always was people crowding the aisles. She is out of self isolation now, even though the Governor here said people coming into the state no longer had to do that she still did it as a precaution of not unknowingly spreading virus, potentially.

There is reduced coronavirus numbers in Ohio:

Our 7 day average daily case increase has been under 500 for the first time since early April. At our peak we were averaging 920 new cases a day. Today it was 481 and one hundred cases fewer than it was 10 days ago on average. Likewise our 14 day rolling average case increase stands at 508, also the lowest it has been in a month. Our most recent spike on the 14 day was May 12th at 605.

Even better we have under 700 patients in our hospitals now, over 400 patients below our peak. Mid May we were still in a prolonged plateau of 1000-1100 patients hospitalized. Our ICU patients continue to drop steadily as well, today just 267 listed. We had 520 ICU patients at our peak. Our deaths remain elevated in the mid-30s per day, compared to a peak of 49 average deaths about two weeks ago.

Ohio's testing has gone from 33,780 total tests week of April 27-May 3rd. Week of May 25-May 31st a total of 66,355 tests were conducted. We are testing over 10,000 tests per day now. A month ago it was little over 4000 a day. Our positive tests are registering below 5% now.

In my county 7 day average cases was just 9.86 today, first time below 10 per day. Our 14 day average has also reached a new low of 13.50. While our hospitalizations had been ticking up to 2.5-3 per day, that figure has now come back down to about 2 per day...which is about the same we were in early May. Mahoning county loses about 2 residents per day which has been pretty steady, but is down from a peak of 5-6 per day early May. We are 4th in the state for deaths and 7th for cases. Over half of our total cases (751 of 1466) stemmed from nursing home staff or residents. 100 of our 191 county deaths were in nursing homes.

Got an email from my friend in rural Colorado. He is a manager at a box store who had to hire new people to cope with the additional traffic and business. Restaurants there are reopening and some of the new people he had hired have left to return to their restaurant jobs.

Sounds like anyone who is in the swimming pool business and camper/RV business has seen a huge increase in sales and business. And the gun stores, but that has multilayered reasoning.

I'm starting to see more businesses here in Ohio with unmasked employees. I'd say I have been in more businesses lately with workers not wearing masks than workers wearing masks. Technically they could be reported to the local board of health for not complying with the state's public health order. I'm not the reporting type...but employees of those businesses could anonymously report also if they didn't feel safe working.

quote__________________________________
He might as well accept from the Rose Garden.
________________________________________

Or, he can accept the nomination from the bunker.

2.5 million jobs added in May. Unemployment rate drops.

Surprising? Early? Labor market bottomed?

Workers on temporary layoff dropped by nearly the same number as job gains so this may be reflective of people being called back. Sustainable? We'll have to see what next month's report brings.

Although there are projections on which national, state, & local leadership in government & private sectors rely for short-term planning, there aren't any that I know of that can guarantee that social distancing wouldn't apply to any specific venue in late August given the broad range of characteristics of attendees.

Does this apply to protests?

So be a considerate human being & wear a mask when interacting w/others. As we keep being reminded, we're all in this together.

Does this apply to protests?

The local merchants (coastal Georgia) are in such a hell-fire rush to reopen for the tourists. I have supported as many (especially restaurants -take-out) as I can throughout this outbreak. If they reopen, that's on them. Personally, I plan to sit back and let the tourists fund these businesses. Middle of June (at least) before I'll sit in a room full of strangers.

How long before you march with thousands?

I know everybody is in a hurry for our lives to get back to normal, but the measures that are in place (self-quarantine, 6' social distancing and (for now ... maybe a little longer) no congregating in public ARE WORKING!

"6' social distancing" Does this apply to protesting?

Dude...4 redundant posts about protests?

I'd like to hear something about anyone's communities, what is different, what are you thinking about maybe doing or not doing...what are you seeing? How are your local numbers?

Please, I'd rather not see another thread sucked up by protesters not wearing masks or not social distancing.

My wife and I went to a outdoor structure/patio/playset manufacturer today. Her and I wore masks, nobody in the place did. I felt fine about it...like you said one time "you do you, I'll do me". Still makes me laugh though. Everyone figure out what advice they should follow and let's just get on with it.

Scott! Nice to hear that you and yours are doing well!

Out here on the fruited Plains of Kansas, things are opening back up by county. The Governor and the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment made the decision a couple of weeks ago to forgo the state wide plan, throwing it back to the counties.

New cases continue to climb, hospitals are holding steady on ICU beds. Now expecting cluster surges as things reopen, large gatherings of people where infections occur.

All of the locations at the health system I work for have universal masking in place, and there’s still no visitors allowed at the hospital locations. Procedure volume is slowly being restored.

My wife and I hit the grocery store every week, a Costco run every two weeks, a trip to Lowe’s or the hardware store as being at home seems to greatly impact the home improvement idea generation and since we aren’t spending any restaurant, movie or entertainment money, why not? The house looks great!

A great rule of thumb is sanitize, do a task, sanitize. Mask, social distance and don’t touch your face. I don’t find it that difficult, and if anyone has an issue with me wearing a mask, that’s their issue, not mine.

The virus is still out there, hopefully we won’t be repeating the 1918 graph this summer. PPE production is slowly catching up (when I have the time I’ll share my experiences with all that, it’s been interesting, frustrating and maddening), but it’s still going to be a while.

got a haircut last night for the 1st time since February

I live north of Boston, work mostly in NH but some in a large hospital in the northern burbs
NH has been opening for a couple weeks. They took a lane out of Main St and have outdoor dining. No menus (scan QR code with phone), 90 minute limit, wait staff with masks. Not yet in MA. Still take out only. Masks everywhere.

We have been having safe social distance cocktail parties around the block. People bring chairs and their own drinks, stay outside, keep about 6 feet away. I would say about 10-15 or so people show up. Good times, feels safe

My hospital in NH has seen a gradual decline in cases. We have been 8-12 for a while now.
The Boston area hospitals were hit hard. They had a celebration of sorts when the one I work with (Lahey) fell below 100, and then last week fell below 50. I spoke with a friend at Brigham - they still have lots of sick people on ventilators, many age 20-50.
In NH we are opening up our medical services but still trying to do as much as we can remotely.

We are all warily watching for a bump in cases as things open up

Dude...4 redundant posts about protests?

Yep and I could have quoted at 20 more, all from people who were talking about the dangers of not following the social rules for defeating this thing....and now?...Crickets because 95% of those recommendations are being totally ignored by the thousands who've taken to the streets. So, redundant? sure. Can you smell the hypocrisy?

Out here in California, many of the restrictions are being loosened. Between that and the protests, we should have a very good idea in about 2 weeks on how serious Covid-19 currently is. We have seen the number of cases go up a little here over the last couple days, but not by that much. Certainly not by enough to worry about.

I am pretty close to the PA and WV state lines so a lot of people from this area go to a place called Mountaineer Casino and Racetrack just over the river. They opened yesterday at 10am with 50% capacity. There were hundreds wrapped around the building waiting to get in at 11am.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1268922740477767681

Ohio is going to open our casinos along with amusement parks in 2 weeks.

Scott! Nice to hear that you and yours are doing well!

Thanks Jerry. All is well here. I remember you saying before you used to take summer trips to the mountains, do you still take those trips?

Stormyrider, do your hospitals take in nursing home patients that have covid or are they kept in the nursing homes? I received conflicting information here, sometimes they would be admitted to a hospital, but then returned to the nursing home.

2112, what is the status of the national and state parks in California? I visited last year. Muir Woods, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Lassen Volcanic NP and ended up at Tahoe. Such a beautiful trip! Drove up the coast from SF to Humboldt region. Wife got car sick!

New Coronavirus Hot Spots Emerge Across South And In California, As Northeast Slows

From npr.org

Mass protests against police violence across the U.S. have public health officials concerned about an accelerated spread of the coronavirus. But even before the protests began May 26, sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, several states had been recording big jumps in the number of cases.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, registered his concern at a congressional hearing Thursday. He shook his head as a congresswoman showed him photos of throngs of people at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri over Memorial Day weekend and crowds in Florida that had assembled to watch the May 30 launch of the SpaceX Dragon crew capsule.
"We're very concerned that our public health message isn't resonating," Redfield said. "We continue to try to figure out how to penetrate the message with different groups. The pictures the chairwoman showed me are great examples of serious problems."
The U.S. is still seeing roughly 20,000 new cases a day. There's a wide range from state to state, from one case a day, on average, last week in Hawaii all the way up to to 2,614 new cases a day in California. Specific areas in the Golden State have become hot spots, along with certain counties in every Southern state.
The northeastern states of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts — which among them accounted for a quarter of all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. — are seeing a substantial slowing of new cases.
A closer look at these hard-hit areas highlights some of the common and unique challenges states face as they manage protests and begin efforts to reopen the economy amid the risks of more disease and death.
Tennessee and the Carolinas among Southern states showing jumps
In the South, the timing of new cases appears to be linked to the reopening of restaurants, barber shops and gyms, which started in most states more than a month ago. Figures tracked by NPR show the number of cases in North Carolina and South Carolina this week is up by roughly 60% from two weeks ago. In Tennessee, that increase is 75%.
Georgia and Louisiana look steadier, but they experienced some of the highest cases counts and fatalities in the region in recent weeks, at the height of the pandemic.
In Southern states that were quick to reopen, officials sometimes felt the need to explain big increases in case counts on some days. In Georgia, for example, a state health official said a big one-day increase was because of a backlog of reporting cases from a commercial lab. In Tennessee this week, a daily jump of 800 cases was blamed partially on an ongoing prison outbreak that yielded 350 new positive test results.

California case counts driven by populous Los Angeles County
In California, counties are continuing to allow businesses to reopen even as newly confirmed coronavirus cases climb. The state experienced a 40% jump in cases over the last week. Large metro areas like Los Angeles and San Francisco have gradually lifted restrictions and Californians have responded by traveling to beaches and neighboring areas, blurring the effectiveness of the varying degrees of restrictions between adjacent counties.
Los Angeles County, home to more than 10 million people, has the highest number of cases in the state. Numbers tracked by NPR show that, on average, health officials report around 1,300 new cases daily. The county has blamed slow lab results for a backlog, while acknowledging that community transmission has been ticking up, especially among communities of color.
In the Northeast, where New York City became the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic for weeks, there are still thousands of new cases every day, although the rate of increase has slowed. It's down 41% in New Jersey over the past two weeks, down 33% in New York and down 13% in Massachusetts. But health officials caution that doesn't mean the coronavirus is under control in these three states. New York is still seeing more than 1,000 new cases a day; over the past week, Massachusetts averaged just over 500 a day, and New Jersey had close to 800.
Ethnic disparities persist across the country
In Los Angeles, elderly people, particularly those who live in nursing homes have been disproportionately impacted. Almost half the people who have died from COVID-19 in the county were nursing home residents. County health officials were slow to test for the virus in nursing homes, and recent data reported by the health department shows that two-thirds of the Los Angeles County health care workers who died from the virus worked in nursing homes.
People of color have been disproportionately affected in California, as elsewhere: Latinos make up over half of the COVID-19 cases in California, where they are about 40% of the state's population. In Los Angeles County, the highest COVID death rates have been among native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders and black residents. Minorities have an increased risk of developing underlying health conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes, making them more likely to develop a more severe illness if infected with the virus.
In Tennessee, which has one of the nation's fastest-growing case counts, neighborhoods that are home to large immigrant populations have emerged as persistent hot spots. Nashville's public health department has hired specialized community outreach workers, in partnership with immigrant advocacy organizations, to conduct contact tracing and connect families with coronavirus testing.
"We knew we had to do something different, and that's what we're doing now," says Leslie Waller, a city epidemiologist who oversees the project.
Waller acknowledges that many of the people at risk work in jobs that have been deemed essential or own businesses that can't be run remotely. Public health officials also express concern that co-workers in close-knit immigrant communities often carpool to the same jobs, and some job sites have experienced large outbreaks.
But in Southern states, rising case counts have not slowed the momentum for further lifting of restrictions. On Thursday, Tennessee announced additional loosening of restrictions for community events, allowing fairs, expos and parades. Instead of limiting the number of people who can gather, the focus has shifted to ensuring everyone can maintain social distance.
"Thanks to the continued hard work of Tennesseans and business owners operating responsibly, we're able to further reopen our state's economy," Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said in a written statement. "These new guidelines provide useful information so that we can enjoy the events that connect us to our neighbors and communities."
There's virtually no public discussion of reinstating business restrictions, so long as hospitals can handle any uptick in illness.
Northeast states take a slower, more cautious approach to reopening
Some states in the Northeast have found ways to bring down infection rates, though many of them have put much stricter rules on businesses and public spaces.
You still can't sit down in a restaurant in New York City or anywhere in Massachusetts and New Jersey. That may be allowed in the coming weeks, but only outdoors. These states are all still in the early stages of reopening, after residents were told to stay home for almost two months and all but the most essential businesses were closed.
While most states do not have broad requirements for face coverings, rules requiring them are more common in the Northeast. In Massachusetts, some kind of face covering is required indoors and outside, if you can't stay at least 6 feet away from other people. In New York and New Jersey, masks are required in public and while riding buses or trains. Within some states, counties have varying rules, which can cause confusion. In Los Angeles County, health officials made cloth face coverings mandatory at all times when outside your home, while San Diego County only requires masks when you are within 6 feet of another person.
Residents everywhere are chafing at the rules, but in the hardest-hit states, there's a wider acceptance of social-distancing rules. A poll out last week found twice as many New York residents were worried about opening too quickly, compared with the number of New Yorkers who were worried about it happening too slowly. Polls in New Jersey and Massachusetts also have shown better than majority support for gradual, phased openings.
This story comes from NPR's reporting partnership with WBUR, Nashville Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio and Kaiser Health News.