Lee won’t extend COVID state of emergency
Governor ends elevated authority to suspend laws to fight pandemic
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Friday he will not renew the COVID-19 state of emergency, letting it expire Friday night.
By doing so, Lee is officially ending a 20-monthlong status that granted the governor elevated authority to suspend state laws and regulations to combat COVID-19. It also allowed Tennessee to draw down additional federal funding assisting the state's pandemic response.
“This tool has provided deregulation and operational flexibility for hospitals and industries most affected by COVID'S challenges,” Lee said in a statement Friday. “Should our state face any future surges, we will consider temporarily reinstating this tool, but in the meantime, we are evaluating opportunities for permanent deregulation.”
The governor's decision comes as the state still is grappling with COVID-19.
The average number of daily infections in Tennessee has fallen in recent months, but still remains at a much higher level than before the delta variant surge. With less than half of the population vaccinated, Tennessee still ranks near the bottom of all 50 states in vaccination rate.
Lee declared the state of emergency on March 12, 2020, more than a week after the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Tennessee and a day after the World Health Organization declared the disease a global pandemic.
“This emergency declaration is an important next step in our efforts to treat and mitigate the impact of this disease,” the governor said at the time.
Over the past 20 months, Lee never implemented a statewide mask mandate, but did restrict gathering sizes during the winter COVID-19 surge last year. Through an executive order, he granted county mayors the authority to implement their own mask mandates, and encouraged them to do so. In July 2020, Lee said he believed an earlier implementation of mask mandates would have helped avoid business shutdowns.
The Tennessee legislature, where Republicans hold a supermajority, swiftly passed a series of laws last month during a special session that significantly rolled back the state's COVID-19 restrictions.
One all-encompassing measure set a stringent standard for governments and schools to implement mask mandates, and outlawed most vaccine requirements.
Lee, who had resisted the special session and remained reluctant to express his opinion on the measures, signed the bill into law last week. But he said some provisions needed a “correction” and urged the legislature to amend the bill in January.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-crossville, told The Tennessean last week he will unlikely loosen the laws during the regular session. In a tweet on Friday, Sexton said he agreed it was time to end the emergency.
Some of the laws have drawn legal challenges. The law prohibiting schools from issuing mask mandates remains blocked in federal court.
Reach Yue Stella Yu at yyu@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @bystellayu_tnsn.