As officials around the globe weigh easing lockdown restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, they are faced with finding a balance between personal safety and personal freedom.
That is the case in the southeastern U.S. state of Tennessee, which ranks about 20th among the 50 U.S. states in the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus and about 30th in the number of deaths.
Tennessee’s governor put a stay-at-home order in place in mid-March. But the order expired on April 30. It also was one of the first states to see protests aimed at easing stay-at-home restrictions, which would allow for the reopening of businesses.
East Tennessee resident Andy Rines' family reunion was canceled because of the restrictions. He calls that loss "an unfortunate consequence of a mass overreaction."
Linda Wilder, who lives in the same part of the state, has season tickets to Dollywood, a nearby amusement park. “Boy, did I pick a bad year for that,” she said, ruefully. Even when the park opens back up, she isn't sure when she'll feel comfortable going.
Last week Tennessee relaxed more social-distancing restrictions, allowing restaurants and retail stores to lift capacity restrictions and enabling attractions and large venues to reopen with social-distancing restrictions in place. As of Friday, all 50 U.S. states had begun easing some restrictions.
That’s what worries Wilder, who lives about a half-hour’s drive from a popular tourist destination, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Wilder’s husband also has a compromised immune system, which puts him among people at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus, according to health officials.
However, teacher Rines thinks the lockdown was unnecessary, as the county, and the state, are not hotbeds of coronavirus activity.
Most of Tennessee’s coronavirus infections have been in the urban centers in each third of the state: Memphis in the west, Nashville in the middle, and Knoxville in the east. Mountainous eastern Tennessee has fewer cases than the more heavily populated middle and western portions of the state.
Overall, Tennessee has recorded more than 20,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 336 deaths, according to Tennessee state records.
Worldwide, there are more than 5.4 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 345,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The U.S. continues to lead the world in confirmed cases, with more than 1.6 million, and deaths, at more than 97,700.
The restrictions have had a particularly harsh effect on Sevier County, home to many of the tourist attractions that surround the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s the most-visited national park in the nation.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said about half of Sevier County’s private sector workers have jobs in tourism or leisure, and the shutdown has left the streets of its tourist towns, lined with hotels, restaurants, shops, go-kart tracks and miniature golf courses, close to empty.
Over the past nine weeks, 38.6 million jobless workers have filed for cash benefits, almost one of every four employees in the U.S. labor force of more than 164 million. In April, the official U.S. unemployment rate was 14.7%, but key Trump administration economic officials say it likely is higher and could approach 25% in the coming weeks.
In April, the jobless rate in Tennessee also was 14.7%, according to a Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development report released Thursday.
When the Great Smoky Mountains National Park partially reopened May 9, the weather was cool but bright and sunny, and the visitors flooded in.
Local news reports said parking lots were full. They also reported that not all visitors were wearing masks and that many were not staying 2 meters from each other or sticking to the areas of the park that had officially reopened.
Wilder is worried, both about the relaxation of the rules and the influx of tourists. She lives near the park, in the small lakeside town of Dandridge, in Jefferson County, Tennessee.
Wilder and her husband, whose immune system is compromised due to Crohn’s disease, have continued working throughout the shutdown, as have her two grown sons. Jefferson County, a collection of small communities with just under 55,000 residents, has recorded only 27 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no deaths blamed on the virus.
But her youngest son delivers soft drinks to grocery stores in Sevier County’s two big tourist towns, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.