Shutdown of Nonessential Businesses
![Coronavirus and Urbanism](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/Dolores-Park-Coronavirus.jpg.webp?itok=lIccrHln)
Austin Scores Highest on Pandemic Recovery; Bay Area and Baltimore Lowest
The Bay Area Council and CBRE created an economic tracker to measure how well the nation's 25 largest metropolitan areas have recovered from the public health restrictions imposed on their regions at the onset of the pandemic.
![COVID-19 and Public Health](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_1784877578.jpg.webp?itok=WSEUdHqn)
Let the Endemic Planning Begin
The first state in the nation to issue a stay-at-home order to slow the spread of a novel coronavirus that humans had no immunity from became the first to release an actual endemic plan, complete with a fancy acronym, SMARTER.
![Pandemic Public Health](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/Pandemic-Public-health.jpg.webp?itok=HWVaS9ih)
CDC to Gov. Whitmer: Time to Shut Down, Not Surge Vaccines
Michigan is on fire—a coronavirus variant is spreading rapidly among younger people, including children, yet high-risk activities, including youth sports and indoor dining, remain open. CDC Director Walensky addressed the conflagration Monday.
![Rhode Island Capitol Building](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_246261790.jpg.webp?itok=wQiM2gig)
Pandemic Geography: What's Wrong in Rhode Island?
The nation's smallest and second densest state has led the country in daily new cases per capita of coronavirus infections for the last week, supplanting the Midwest and Mountain States where the virus has reigned for months.
![Hospital Signs](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_39433774.jpg.webp?itok=0yisXQAt)
The Pandemic's Most Critical Health Metric Just Shut Down Most of California
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who issued the nation's first stay-at-home order to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, issued a new order to prevent hospitals in the nation's most populous state from being overwhelmed with COVID patients.
![El Paso](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_108400367.jpg.webp?itok=mxnRyTx5)
El Paso Update: 'On the Brink of Disaster'
Among the nation's more populous counties, El Paso continues to suffer the most severe coronavirus outbreak. One out of nearly every 30 residents currently has COVID-19. Four additional mobile morgues, on top of the existing six, have been ordered.
![Mass Shootings](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/El-Paso.jpg.webp?itok=5ynUZwAC)
Corona Crisis in America: The Metropolitan Area to Watch
The battle to control the coronavirus in the U.S is being led by 50 governors and the D.C. mayor, but ultimately it is at the local level where decisions are often the most consequential. Among large counties, the crisis is most severe in El Paso.
![Coronavirus Social Distancing](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_1699574188.jpg.webp?itok=W3LgCOcd)
Campaign Launched to Halt State Reopenings and Start Over
During March and April, most states shut down all but essential services in order to "flatten the curve," and it largely worked. What happened afterward didn't. U.S. PIRG has organized a campaign to start the process over and do it right.
![Mission, Texas](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_1642396546.jpg.webp?itok=K8912eY_)
Texas County First in Nation to Issue Second Stay-at-Home Order
The first shelter-at-home order issued in the pandemic's resurgence in the U.S. took effect Wednesday morning in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, an overwhelmingly Latino region that has been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus.
![Atlanta, Georgia](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_1768780208.jpg.webp?itok=4xBqScXM)
Georgia Feud Over Mask Mandates May Not Be What it Seems
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) and the Atlanta City Council over the city's mask mandate, which is stricter than mask provisions defined in the governor's July 15 executive order.
![Coronavirus and Urbanism](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_1706897125.jpg.webp?itok=c7c4_3XN)
Learning from Down Under
The governors of Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, and other states where COVID-19 infections are threatening to overwhelm hospitals should consider what their counterpart in Victoria, Australia, did on July 7 to contain the coronavirus.
![Coronavirus Protest](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_1720603723.jpg.webp?itok=LRxbB-vw)
California Rolls Back
The nation's most significant rollback to date of a state reopening plan occurred Monday when California Gov. Gavin Newsom closed seven categories of indoor businesses statewide and an additional six categories of indoor operations in 31 counties.
![Woodburn, Oregon](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_1741004774.jpg.webp?itok=e1Ln-2yC)
What's So Special About Oregon and Utah?
These two Western states did something that none of the 20 other states in the nation going the wrong way in the pandemic have yet to do: they paused their reopening plans due to rising coronavirus infections and hospitalizations.
![Coronavirus Protest](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_1720453201.jpg.webp?itok=bZFM8hrJ)
Academic Studies: Staying at Home Saved Millions of Lives Globally
Separate coronavirus studies from the University of California at Berkeley and Imperial College London published June 8 in the journal Nature show the life and health-saving value of domestic stay-at-home orders, global lockdowns, and other measures.
![Welcome to North Dakota](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_102293644.jpg.webp?itok=sZgyNnnN)
An Unlikely State Emerges as Nation's Premier Contact Tracer
The Peace Garden State is one of a handful of rural states never to have issued a stay-at-home order, yet it is number three in coronavirus testing per capita and number one in contact tracing, two of the four tools needed to contain COVID-19.
![Coronavirus](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_1684065028.jpg.webp?itok=r1dXfHPO)
States Not Unified in Response to Coronavirus Pandemic
Public health experts were pleased that Trump extended his coronavirus guidelines, but they remain advisory, left to state and local governments to implement. Nine states have yet to issue stay-at-home orders, leaving the nation vulnerable to COVID.
![Mississippi State Capitol](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_427048960.jpg.webp?itok=q4mtFBqc)
Mississippi Governor First to Preempt Local Stay-at-Home Orders
As more governors order residents to stay at home and/or close nonessential businesses to contain the spread of COVID-19, Gov. Tate Reeves has gone the opposite direction by issuing an executive order that supersedes stricter local measures.
![Millennium Bridge](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_1677268744.jpg.webp?itok=CHpVv99e)
Britain Shuts Down and India Locks Down to Contain COVID-19
In a major reversal, Prime Minister Boris Johnson dramatically strengthened his policies on containing the pandemic, ordering residents on Monday to stay at home and closing nonessential businesses. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of Inda went further.
![Donald Trump](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_1424043059.jpg.webp?itok=m0KpS7MU)
White House Could End 'Slow the Spread' Coronavirus Guidelines
President Trump signaled that he was considering lifting the public health guidelines at the end of the 15-day period on March 30 due to the severe economic impacts caused by containment strategies despite mounting deaths caused by the pandemic.
![Cleveland Public Square](/files/styles/small_400/public/images/shutterstock_501186976.jpg.webp?itok=7_C0UOm5)
Delaware, Louisiana, and Ohio Prepare to Shut Down Non-Essential Businesses
As confirmed cases of COVID-19 increase rapidly throughout the nation, governors of Delaware, Louisiana, and Ohio on Sunday issued stay-at-home orders that take effect Monday night or Tuesday to protect residents and hospitals.
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Planning for Universal Design
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Placer County
Skagit Transit
Berkeley County
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland