U.S. County-Level Restaurant Closure Orders During COVID-19

State and territorial executive orders, administrative orders, resolutions, and proclamations for COVID-19 restaurant closures and reopenings were collected from government websites and coded by the CDC. The dataset covers orders issued from March 11, 2020 through August 15, 2021, broken down to the county level. Data collection involved a primary coder with additional coders conducting quality assurance.

Use Cases

• Analyze the duration and timing of restaurant closure requirements by county to model local economic impacts.
• Map the geographic spread of mitigation policies by linking county-level order data to public health outcomes.
• Study the legal epidemiology of COVID-19 by tracking the issuance of executive orders, administrative orders, resolutions, and proclamations over time.

Strengths

• Data is derived from official government documents or press releases, excluding news media reports.
• Covers a defined 17-month period from March 11, 2020 to August 15, 2021.
• Includes quality assurance procedures with one or more additional coders reviewing the primary coder's work.
• Provides granularity at the county level for orders that apply to specific jurisdictions.

Limitations

• Dataset excludes orders not available on publicly accessible websites, potentially missing some local mandates.
• Effective and expiration dates are coded using only the date provided, without distinction for the specific time of day.
• Recommendations not included in a formal order are excluded, which may not capture all guidance influencing business behavior.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Orders were collected from government websites, cataloged, and coded using Microsoft Excel by a coder with quality assurance from additional coders.

Time Range

March 11, 2020 through August 15, 2021

Freshness

Dataset was last updated on the platform on 2026-02-23.

Geography

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