U.S. County-Level Bar Closure and Reopening Orders from March 2020 to May 2021

State and territorial executive orders, administrative orders, resolutions, and proclamations for COVID-19 were collected from government websites and coded to determine when bars were subject to closing and reopening requirements. The dataset consists exclusively of orders from March 11, 2020 through May 31, 2021, broken down to the county level. Data were collected and quality assured by coders from the CDC and related task forces.

Use Cases

• Analyze the duration and timing of bar closure orders by county to assess regional public health policy responses.
• Map the geographic application of state and territorial executive orders and proclamations to identify counties with differing restrictions.
• Study the sequence of business reopening orders relative to initial closure dates to model phased mitigation strategies.
• Correlate the issuance of administrative orders and resolutions with other public health metrics during the specified time range.

Strengths

• Data covers a defined 15-month period from March 11, 2020 to May 31, 2021.
• Information is derived from official government documents and press releases, excluding news media reports.
• Collection and coding involved quality assurance procedures with multiple coders.
• Data granularity is at the county level within states and territories.

Limitations

• Dataset excludes orders not available on publicly accessible government websites.
• Effective and expiration dates are coded without distinction for the specific time of day.
• Recommendations not included in a formal order are excluded from the data.

Provenance

Source

United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Collection Method

State and territorial orders were collected from government websites, cataloged, and coded using Microsoft Excel by coders with quality assurance checks.

Time Range

March 11, 2020 through May 31, 2021.

Freshness

Dataset was last updated on the platform in February 2026.

Geography

United States, including states and territories, broken down to the county level.