Moreover, in some states (including those with rapidly rising caseloads), Governors resisted issuing state-wide orders, leaving decisions up to local jurisdictions, creating confusion and concern and prompting calls from local officials and public health experts for state-wide action. In some cases, contiguous states have had different policies (such as South Carolina, which has no mandate and North Carolina which does). But, with conflicting messages from the federal government and a lack of clear guidelines, states have not been on the same page, and implementation has been scattershot at best. Since then, additional states and communities across the country began implementing mandatory stay-at-home orders (and other social distancing measures, including school closures, many of which began state-wide on March 16, and closing non-essential businesses).

By March 16, six Bay Area counties became the first in the nation to announce shelter-in-place orders and on March 19, the State of California became the first to mandate a state-wide order.

On March 6, San Francisco similarly warned vulnerable residents to avoid outings and larger groups, businesses to suspend non-essential travel and consider telecommuting, and cancelation of all non-essential large events, and the city began restricting event size a few days later. On March 4, King County officials in Washington State first recommended that certain vulnerable groups (including people over 60 years old and those with underlying health conditions) stay home, businesses allow more telecommuting options, and the cancellation or postponement of large public events school closures began in parts of the state within a couple of days. With little testing available and no significant federal response beyond instituting international travel restrictions at the time (the President downplayed the threat of COVID-19 well into March), some jurisdictions took matters into their own hands and began implementing social distancing measures.

By late-February, it became increasingly clear that sustained community transmission of coronavirus had taken hold in parts of the United States, particularly on the West Coast and, soon after, the New York City region.

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