Open for Business…Sort Of
She set the table for it last week…Gov. Kim Reynolds noting at one of her daily news briefings that the impact of COVID-19 on the state was uneven, with some areas showing deep community spread and others with hardly a case to report. Then the first step last Friday, indicating that elective surgeries and open farmers markets could resume this week. Yesterday, the next step in the deliberative process–77 of Iowa’s 99 counties, the ones with minimal coronavirus impact, could see a reopening of retail stores, malls, restaurants and health clubs with limitations on capacity and with social distancing rules in place.
Obviously, the state’s most populous counties, the ones with the most cases of the virus, are not included. But it will be a very good test to see if spikes in cases result from people being allowed to live closer to normal.
Of particular note was another provision of yesterday’s order, allowing religious gatherings statewide, with precautions and social distancing. This has become a particularly thorny issue during the pandemic. When the orders are statewide, it is easier to defend a possible lawsuit alleging infringement on freedom of religion; that is far more difficult when a government says your freedom to worship depends on where you live. And in a state like Iowa, where faith is strong, the ability to know that your church is likely open on Sunday is a wonderful reassurance during a most troubling time.
There will be problems, of course. The rules are determined by county lines, which are artificial. We need some boundaries for definition, of course, and county designations are as good as any other. But how many folks living in a county still closed will venture across that line to a county that is open? The answer, of course, is plenty…just as folks think nothing of crossing county lines to commute to work, or those in our border counties jump into a neighboring state and vice versa.
And for those who grouse that it’s inconsistent to reopen parts of the state just as we are having huge spikes in positive test results…those positive results are pretty concentrated, and not in the counties set to reopen. Not fair to punish an entire state due to outbreaks in less than a quarter of the counties, or an entire nation because certain large densely populated cities have outbreaks.
It’s also a sign that the end is closer, as is a return to a modified form of life as we knew it just two short months ago.
