- My home state of Tennessee started to reopen last week.
- In March, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a “safer at home” order through the end of April that asked residents to stay at home.
- Lee stopped short of issuing a shelter-in-place order that would require residents to stay home and close non-essential businesses that could implement social distancing policies.
- I drove around my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, one evening in early April 2020 when the state was under the safer-at-home order and observed people in parks and standing in crowded checkout lines at the grocery store.
- Some others took socially-distanced walks which were allowed under the state guidelines.
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I’ve lived in New York City for nearly five years. When the city began to report cases of the novel coronavirus in early March, I decided to return to my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. I took a flight home before authorities advised against nonessential travel, and while I thought it would be a quick visit with my family, it’s May and I’m still here.
I was already in Tennessee when, on March 31, Gov. Bill Lee issued a shelter-in-place executive order for the state. In a tuyên bố released April 2, Lee clarified that the order is “not a mandated ‘shelter in place’ order because it remains deeply important to me to protect personal liberties.” Many non-essential businesses were closed by the order, but residents were not required to stay in their homes. The initial executive order was supposed to last until April 14, 2020.
In the same statement, Gov. Lee also nói that he has “seen data indicating that movement may be increasing,” indicating that Tennesseans weren’t following social distancing guidelines and temporarily extended our shutdown, but now he’s gradually reopening the state, starting with dine-in restaurants and retail stores last week.
Tennessee has scored an F on a social distancing scoreboard
Tennessee currently has an F score on the social distancing scoreboard compiled by New York location data and analytics firm Unacast. It had a D- score when these pictures were taken.
The scoreboard maps how well states are social distancing by using location services data from games and shopping apps already downloaded onto millions of Americans’ phones. Uncast has given Hamilton County, where these photos were taken, an F. It had a C- when these pictures were taken, during the state’s safer-at-home orders.
Some of the movement in Tennesee could be attributed to the devastating tornados that reduced parts of Chattanooga to rubble in April và left 27,000 Chattanoogans still without electricity. These photos were taken before the tornadoes.
