Tennessee Governor Bill Lee will lift all restrictions as of tomorrow (Wednesday, September 30, 2020) on businesses and gatherings in 89 of the state’s 95 counties.

The governor also signed an executive order allowing county mayors in those 89 counties (all counties except Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Madison, Shelby and Sullivan) to institute a mask mandate through October 30, 2020.

Lee also signed an executive order that continues the state of emergency until October 30, 2020.

“COVID-19 is still a serious problem and I encourage every Tennessean to continue social distancing and doing their part to make wise choices and help mitigate the spread of the virus, ” said Governor Lee.

The governor also signed Executive Order 64, which extends through October 30, 2020 provisions that allow for remote notarization and witnessing of documents.

Executive Order 60, which extends through October 28, 2020 provisions that allow for electronic government meetings subject to transparency safeguards, including the requirements of live broadcasts of electronic meetings to the public beginning Oct. 1, remain in effect.

Executive Order 63 includes provisions that:

• Provide that persons with COVID-19 or COVID-19 symptoms are required to stay at home, and that employers may not require or allow employees with COVID-19 to work;
• Urge persons to wear a cloth face covering in places where in close proximity to others, while facilitating local decision-making concerning face covering requirements;
• Urge social distancing from those outside of your household, while eliminating caps on gathering size that have proven overly complex and arbitrary because they do not adequately account for critical considerations such as venue capacity and physical characteristics, type of activity involved, and location (indoors vs. outdoors), and thus undermine the more important focus on social distancing;
• Providing a framework for safe visitation for nursing home and long-term-care facilities;
• Allow for the reopening of senior centers, while providing that capacity must be limited to the extent necessary to accommodate adequate social distancing;
• Provide that employers, businesses, and venues are expected to comply with the Tennessee Pledge for operating safely (the six counties with locally-run county health departments continue to have existing statutory authority to issue additional directives on businesses/venues);
• Continue access to take-out alcohol sales to encourage carryout and delivery orders;
• Allow broad access to telehealth services;
• Increase opportunities for people to easily join the healthcare workforce;
• Facilitate increased testing and health care capacity;
• Extend deadlines and suspend certain in-person continuing education, gathering, or inspection requirements to avoid unnecessary person-to-person contact; and
• Increase opportunities to work remotely where appropriate.