Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a mandatory executive order Thursday requiring Tennesseans to stay home with one exception: if you are carrying out essential business (ex. getting groceries, picking up meds form pharmacy), you are allowed to be away from home. The executive order remains in effect until 11:59 p.m. April 14.
“Staying at home is not an option,” Lee said. “It is now a requirement.”
Lee said made the announcement Thursday afternoon during his daily briefing that he signed Executive Order 23, which turned Tennessee from a Safer-At-Home state to a Stay At Home state, because data showed an increase in citizen movement across the state.
“Over the last few weeks, we have seen decreases in movement around the state as Tennesseans socially distance and stay at home,” Lee said in a news release sent out before his briefing. “However, in recent days, we have seen data indicating that movement may be increasing and we must get these numbers trending back down. I have updated my previous executive order to clearly require that Tennesseans stay at home unless they are carrying out essential activities.”
Lee said letters were sent out to law enforcement agencies Wednesday on how to enforce the order. Lee said while his administration gave the law enforcement agencies, he said it is up to individual agencies on how they will enforce the order.
“The month of April stands to be an extremely tough time for our state as we face the potential for a surge in COVID-19 cases,” Lee said. “Every Tennessean must take this seriously, remain at home and ensure we save lives.”
The release said data from the Tennessee Department of Transportation analyzed traffic patterns for March 2020. While safer at home measures and further restrictions on businesses showed a steep drop-off in vehicle movement from March 13-29, data beginning on March 30 indicates travel is trending upwards, again.
The release said Lee’s administration also analyzed data from Unacast to understand cell phone mobility and determine movement trends among people. Unacast indicates the movement of Tennesseans is trending toward pre-COVID-19 levels.