MOBILE, Alabama — Cautiously aggressive reopening.
That’s probably the best way to describe the plan Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced on Tuesday for the state’s next moves in response to the coronavirus crisis. She didn’t use that phrase — she called it “easing back into our routines with caution” — but no matter what one calls it, the plan appears to strike just the right balance.
Indeed, it probably could and should serve as a model for states of similar population densities. It came after what Ivey described as a “thoughtful, methodical process” involving a specially appointed committee, it was guided by data, and unlike Georgia’s “reopening” last week, it was done in consultation with the White House as well.
Beginning at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Alabama’s stay-at-home order will be replaced with a “Safer at Home” directive. It rolls back many of the legally enforceable restrictions while still urging people to continue practices of hand-washing, hygiene, safe distancing, and wearing masks. It continues to urge people to stay home unless truly necessary and strongly recommends “remote working” when at all possible. It also continues to keep closed all indoor entertainment venues, salons and barbershops, tattoo parlors, and other venues involving close contact or lingering patrons and continues to allow restaurants to be open for takeout and delivery only, with no dine-in seating — either indoors or out.
But all other retail establishments will now be allowed to reopen if they remain below 50% capacity at any one time while maintaining appropriate, 6-foot-plus distancing. Beaches and other outdoor venues will reopen as long as those rules are observed and there are no gatherings of more than 10 people. Elective medical procedures and dentistry will resume, but only under careful observance of guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Scott Harris, the state health officer, explained that Alabama’s caseload, both in terms of reported cases and deaths, has been “relatively flat” rather than “accelerating” for many days now. With about 6,600 total reported cases and fewer than 250 deaths (as of the press conference), Alabama’s incidence of COVID-19 is not inconsiderable but is only about half of the national per capita average. Hospitals are not short of ventilators or beds in intensive care units. The state is rapidly “moving in the right direction” on testing and “contact tracing.”
In sum, to repeat, the new plan is data-driven. It pushes the bounds as far as possible, for now, in favor of allowing commerce and other ordinary activities without recklessly risking a second “spike” in coronavirus cases.
Ivey emphatically repeated one point: “The threat of COVID-19 is not over. For now, we must continue to be vigilant in our social distancing.”
On the other hand, in most senses: “I believe that all business is essential and truly regret any suggestion to the contrary.”
This is all carefully, and I believe wisely, calculated. Most of the country probably should follow suit. Granted, densely populated places such as New York City, where so many people rely on tightly packed subway cars for transportation, which are little more than moving Petri dishes, surely will need to remain locked down much longer because that’s what the data indicates.
But to whatever extent health statistics and common sense allow, the nation needs to start easing back toward normal because these lockdowns also cause, downstream, their own detrimental effects on health and poverty.
Alabama isn’t often known for leading the nation in many things other than football, but in this instance, it is showing the wisest way. Roll, tide. Indeed.
