Business continuity during coronavirus lockdowns: Is my establishment essential?

With a growing number of Americans living under lockdown orders because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new question has started to affect many U.S. companies: Can my business stay open during a lockdown?

Common features of lockdowns

Lockdown orders sprang up in the California Bay Area first and then spread to multiple states. They have some common features that are helpful to understand:

• They generally allow “essential businesses” to stay open despite the lockdown order;
• They generally don't require entities to go through a formal application process to become certified or designated as “essential” or obtain a permit to prove they're entitled to continue operating;
• The orders have been issued only at the state or local level so far; and
• They may define “essential” in an ambiguous fashion.

The initial lockdown orders in the Bay Area generally provided only that “essential” businesses could stay open and recited a short list of examples: grocery stores, medical providers, and pharmacies. Later orders seemed to expand the list to include other types of industries as well as any businesses supporting them.