The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- Level
- Federal
- Authority
- Presidential guidance (not an order)
- Issued
- 2020-03-16 Mar. 16, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-03-16 (fifteen days). (read as 2020-03-16)
- End
- 2020-04-30 (superseded by the Guidelines for Opening Up America Again, Apr. 16, 2020, FED-192) (read as 2020-04-30)
- In force
- Mar. 16, 2020 to Apr. 30, 2020
- Quarters
- 2020 Q2
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Business closureTelework mandateGathering capTravel and quarantineSchools and child care
- Addressees
- every American; State and local officials; governors of States with community transmission
- Functions reached
- context: the federal template for the ten-person gathering limit, the telework instruction, the closure of bars, restaurants and gyms, and the travel restraint that State orders enacted
- Collection
- Federal health, safety and transport layer FED-A
Operative words
[image-only PDF; text as read in the prior verified research:] Listen to and follow the directions of your STATE AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES.... Work or engage in schooling FROM HOME whenever possible.... AVOID SOCIAL GATHERINGS in groups of more than 10 people.... Avoid eating or drinking at bars, restaurants, and food courts - USE DRIVE-THRU, PICKUP, OR DELIVERY OPTIONS. AVOID DISCRETIONARY TRAVEL, shopping trips, and social visits.... IN STATES WITH EVIDENCE OF COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION, bars, restaurants, food courts, gyms, and other indoor and outdoor venues where groups of people congregate should be closed.
Enforcement
None (guidance); the template every State stay-at-home and closure order of March 2020 implemented
Notes
CONTEXT ONLY, never pleaded as the order (thesis T8 and the Q&A-10 definition both require an order). Its value: the federal government itself, on March 16, 2020, told the governors to close bars, restaurants, food courts and gyms and told the public to avoid travel, shopping and gatherings; the State orders that followed are the orders.
Retrieval noteThe archived PDF is image-only (no text layer); the quoted words are from the same document as transcribed in the prior verified research (Stevens Water federal file, Sept. 9, 2026) and are visible in the image.