In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, non-essential businesses
across the United States faced executive orders by state Governors
instructing them to close or significantly limit all in-person
operations.
States are now considering how best to reopen their economies,
balancing the desire to permit businesses to operate with the need
to continue to slow the spread of COVID-19. The federal
government has unveiled its Guidelines for Opening Up America
Again, a three-phased approach intended to help state and local
officials determine when and how to reopen their economies while
continuing to protect Americans from the spread of
COVID-19.
A phased approach is one in which restrictions are modified in
phases, gradually moving towards resuming business as usual with no
particular COVID-19 related restrictions. Such approaches
often rely on gating criteria to establish when it is time to move
to the next phase, for example whether COVID-19 related symptoms
and
