Eight months ago, the federal government rolled out its strategy to combat the spread of the coronavirus: a temporary shutdown that would last for at least 15 days. It was up to the states to determine just how long this shutdown would last and what kind of restrictions it would require. But in just about every state, 15 days turned into one month, one month turned into three, and in many places, the shutdown was never fully lifted.

Now, some states want to send their citizens back into lockdown as cases rise once again. In Michigan, for example, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer implemented a three-week shutdown that requires high schools, colleges, in-person dining, casinos, movie theaters, and class-based gyms to close their doors. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced a similar order, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker warned that he would issue a mandatory statewide shelter-in-place order if cases in the state continued to rise.