Territorial governments

Summary

The five territories issued the earliest and, in Puerto Rico's and Guam's cases, the longest and most stringent territory-wide orders in the United States, and every employer in them was an eligible employer: CARES Act 2301(c)(5)(A) defines qualified wages by reference to section 3121(a), section 3121(e)(2) defines the United States to include Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa (the CNMI by Covenant 606(b)), and Notice 2021-20 Q&A-4 states that eligible employers include employers in the U.S. Territories (Ex. 105, 106). PUERTO RICO: OE-2020-020 (Mar. 12, 2020) declared the emergency; OE-2020-023 (Mar. 15) imposed a 9 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew on all citizens and the total closure of governmental and private operations except essentials, the first stay-at-home order in the nation (CDC MMWR 69:1198); successive orders extended the lockdown to Mar. 30, Apr. 12, May 3 (hours 5 a.m.-7 p.m.), May 25 and June 15, 2020, with the Easter weekend closure of even supermarkets (OE-2020-032), a fourteen-day quarantine of every arriving passenger (OE-2020-030, replaced July 3 by test-or-quarantine under OE-2020-052), and a phased reopening from May 2020 (restaurants 25 percent from May 26; malls 50 percent from June 8). The 2020 Q3-Q4 orders kept a nightly curfew (10 p.m.-5 a.m.; 9 p.m. from Dec. 7) with capacity steps of 75, 50, 25, 50 and 30 percent, bars closed from July 17, 2020, Sunday lockdowns (Aug. 1-Sept. 11 and Dec. 7-Jan. 7) and alcohol bans. Governor Pierluisi's 2021 orders kept a curfew (11 p.m., then midnight, then 10 p.m. in April 2021) and 30-50 percent capacity through OE-2021-043, which lapsed July 4, 2021; schools were closed to in-person instruction until Mar. 1, 2021 (OE-2021-017); arriving passengers were tested or quarantined throughout (OE-2020-052, OE-2021-028, OE-2021-037). In Q3 2021 OE-2021-054 (July 1) delegated the pandemic measures to the Secretary of Health (whose mask orders 508 and 512 continued), and the Delta orders required vaccination or weekly testing of public employees (OE-2021-058, eff. Aug. 16), health-sector, lodging and contractor employees (OE-2021-062, Aug. 16), restaurant, bar, theater, cinema, stadium and activity-center employees with patron access restrictions (OE-2021-063, Aug. 23), gym, salon, barbershop, spa, child-care, casino, grocery and convenience-store employees (OE-2021-064, Aug. 30-Oct. 15), and restated indoor masks and a midnight-5 a.m. closing (OE-2021-065, Sept. 2-23, extended to Oct. 14 by OE-2021-070); OE-2021-075 repealed the mandates on Nov. 15, 2021. GUAM: EO 2020-03 (Mar. 14) declared the public health emergency (extended every thirty days through 2021); EO 2020-05 (Mar. 20) prohibited all public gatherings under 10 GCA 3317 and ordered every non-essential place of business to close at noon that day, extended by EO 2020-06, -09 and -11 (Apr. 30, which created the four-level PCOR system with Guam in PCOR 1); PCOR 2 from May 10 (EO 2020-14; gatherings of ten; occupancy limits), PCOR 3 from July 20 (EO 2020-24), then a second lockdown: PCOR 1 from Aug. 16 (EO 2020-27), residents ordered to stay home (EO 2020-28, Aug. 21, extended Sept. 4, 11 and 17), a Safer-at-Home Advisory at 25 percent occupancy with gatherings still prohibited (EO 2020-34, Sept. 24), gatherings of five and worship and gyms at 25 percent (EO 2020-36, Oct. 3), gatherings of ten (EO 2020-44, Dec. 18); PCOR 2 from Jan. 18, 2021 (EO 2021-01); PCOR 3 in spring 2021 with traveler quarantine (EO 2021-13, -15); EO 2021-16 (July 21) lifted most restrictions; then EO 2021-17 (Aug. 6, GovGuam workers vaccinate), EO 2021-19 (Aug. 20, vaccination requirements for entry to establishments and gathering limits, refined by EO 2021-20, Aug. 24, in force to Feb. 2022), EO 2021-21 (Aug. 27, in-person learning suspended to Sept. 16). U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS: state of emergency Mar. 13, 2020 (23 V.I.C. 1005, renewed monthly); the Supplemental Order of Mar. 23 closed all bars, limited restaurants to take-out and delivery, halved taxi capacity, barred hotels, guest houses, villas, bed-and-breakfasts, shared-economy rentals and charter vessels from new guests, closed schools, limited government to essential services and, from Mar. 25, ordered the public to stay home and non-essential businesses to cease in-person operations (extended to Apr. 30; beaches closed Apr. 6-20); Safer at Home from May 4 (masks; retail ten customers; hotels closed to new guests to May 31); Open Doors from June 1 under binding restaurant and bar guidance; bars, nightclubs and gaming closed again July 9 and a fourteen-day quarantine imposed on travelers from high-positivity States (July 15); masks with closure penalties Aug. 10; a second Stay-at-Home Aug. 13-Sept. 8 (hotels closed to new guests; restaurants take-out; bars closed; schools closed); Safer-at-Home from Sept. 8 (mass gatherings of fifty prohibited; seated service; travel screening portal with a negative test for every arrival from Sept. 19); 50 percent from Oct. 12; bars reopened Nov. 9 under conditions; cabarets closed Dec. 17 and stand-alone bars Dec. 25-Jan. 7; PCR testing of every traveler age five and over from Dec. 25, 2020; the Twenty-First Order (Jan. 27, 2021) consolidated the regime (universal masks; gatherings of fifty; beach closures; restaurant and bar rules; travel portal), raised to 75 percent Mar. 8, 2021, eased Apr. 23 and May 25 (eviction moratorium to July 30, later Dec. 31, 2021); in Q3 2021 the portal testing continued (25th-27th Orders), gatherings were tightened Aug. 13 (fifty, or one hundred vaccinated persons), beaches closed on weekend afternoons to Sept. 7, and the midnight closure and alcohol limits on restaurants and bars stayed in force until Oct. 29, 2021 (31st Order). AMERICAN SAMOA: the Governor's public health emergency declarations (A.S.C.A. 13.0301, 26.0101) suspended all entry permits and all regularly scheduled passenger flights from March 2020 and quarantined every permitted entrant; the 2021 declarations (Jan. 3, Feb. 19, Apr. 15, June 16, Oct. 8) continued the border closure on every day of the period, added a negative-test-or-vaccination condition and, from Oct. 8, 2021, full vaccination as a condition of entry. CNMI: EO 2020-01 (Jan. 29, 2020) declared a significant emergency; the Second Amended EO 2020-04 (Mar. 19) declared the public health emergency with sixteen directives (government offices shut; fourteen-day quarantine of every arrival including from Guam, Hawaii and the mainland; gatherings of more than ten prohibited; businesses open 6 a.m.-6 p.m. at 50 percent; no on-premises food or drink; gaming and amusement closed; private schools closed; curfew 7 p.m.-6 a.m.), administered by the COVID-19 Task Force under EO 2020-07 and consolidated Apr. 16; Level YELLOW May 25 and BLUE June 15 (gatherings of twenty-five; churches 50 percent; businesses 75 percent); quarantine of all entrants with testing from June 18; restrictions reimposed Aug. 24-Sept. 6, 2020 with closure penalties of one month to one year; Level BLUE with curfew fines through June 17, 2021; Level GREEN from June 18, 2021 with the ports-of-entry quarantine and testing regime continuing.