While we’ve started to see some talks about re-opening state economies, restrictions have continued to tighten into April.

At this point it seems unlikely that the states which have not yet imposed stay-at-home mandates will do so. Arkansas, Iowa, and South Dakota appear to be the hold outs when it comes to these directives. Nearly every other state at this point has some form of requirement that people not leave their homes except for essential purposes, though several states like New York, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming are all strongly urging residents to not go out in public.

Kentucky still appears to be the only state that has prohibited residents from traveling into other states.

Many stay home orders were originally scheduled to expire by now, but have been universally extended and now almost all currently active orders extend through the end of April, with many going into May. This, combined with a sharp increase in mandatory self-quarantine orders for anyone crossing state borders, shows we’re still a ways off from relaxed restrictions.

While some Governors are releasing frameworks for ending the lockdowns and multiple states are joining together to discuss strategies to let people go back to work, several citizen groups are tired of waiting for the government mandated shutdowns to cease.

Something new as of today are statewide mandates that everyone wear face masks at all times while in public. It will be interesting to see what happens if and when these orders conflict with laws that forbid the wearing of masks.