“Rebounding to an economic recovery will require consumer confidence,” Mr. Little said in a statement, noting that shoppers will want assurance their safety is protected until a vaccine or widespread immunity exists. “We can expect to go through phases of loosening and tightening of these measures.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has suggested that restaurant patrons would have to submit to having their temperatures taken before being seated once that state begins a gradual reopening.

Even without any statewide reopening order, a restaurant in Fresno, Calif., called Pismo’s Coastal Grill announced it would reopen for lunch and dinner on May 7, assuring customers it would “practice social distancing to the max.”

“We’re going to start taking our first little baby steps back to full service,” the restaurant’s owner, Dave Fansler, said in a video posted to its Facebook page.

In Seattle, the first place in the nation where the outbreak erupted into numerous deaths, Boeing announced it was resuming commercial airline production, putting 27,000 people back to work. Even two farmers’ markets were set to reopen this weekend, with new social distancing rules and a request that shoppers pledge to not touch produce, to wear masks and to stay home if they’re sick, among other things.

“I won’t chat up my favorite farmer — I will offer them a smile and a wave,” reads the online pledge the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance is asking shoppers to sign.

Other businesses desperate to get back in operation are struggling to decide when and how they will reopen their doors.