When the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, the Trump administration and all 50 states followed with emergency declarations, enacting extraordinary social distancing restrictions to slow the spread of the virus: mass stay-at-home orders, school and business closures, bans on large public gatherings, travel restrictions and mask-wearing requirements.
“Let me assure you: We’ve never seen anything like this ever in U.S. history,”
Libertarians, conservatives and many ordinary Americans denounced them as an assault on civil liberties such as freedoms of assembly and worship.
In general, the measures did not involve governmental overreach. No blanket closures of businesses and schools were undertaken. Nor was a national lockdown or a ban on interstate travel imposed.
In the United States, while the federal government wields enormous emergency authorities, the power to regulate public safety and health rests with state and local authorities.
As the COVID-19 lockdown began to decrease revenue in all industrial areas state governors began to allow more business.