they administered vaccines to politicitally-connected family and friends. on january 29, the state of tennessee announced it had partnered with walmart to ensure that it is feasible for all people in tennessee to get the coronavirus vaccine. walmart will open at least 20 vaccination centers in its west tennessee stores. february 2021 total cases by county as of february 1, 2021: 250–4,999 cases >5,000 cases on february 12, walmart announced that its pharmacies would provide vaccination sites, emphasizing locations with many customers who have limited access to health care. this included locations in bristol, johnson city, kingsport, knoxville, and sevierville. on february 23, the state of tennessee announced at least 2,400 coronavirus vaccine doses were wasted by shelby county officials due to an excessive vaccine inventory, poor record-keeping, no county-instituted process for managing soon-to-expire vaccines, and unusually poor winter weather (ice, snow, sleet, frigid temperatures, etc.) during the week of february 15. however, the winter weather was not entirely to blame, as the state claimed the issues went as far back as february 3. as a result, the state of tennessee will not allow the shelby county government to distribute vaccine supplies; instead, the memphis city government, memphis hospitals, and other clinics and pharmacies would take charge of vaccine distribution and administration. on february 26, governor bill lee extended tennessee counties' authority to mandate masks through april 28. several counties chose to lift mask mandates everywhere except governmental buildings, but continued to recommend masks. also on february 26, the state of tennessee announced that all of tennessee's nursing homes and "skilled nursing facilities" had received both doses of coronavirus vaccines as of february 24. the state also announced that vaccinations for these people are expected to be completed across the state during the week of february 26. in light of these announcements, the state stopped requiring nursing homes and "skilled nursing facilities" to follow stringent guidelines; however individual businesses may choose to continue to limit visitors and nursing homes that receive federal funds are still subject to federal rules. march 2021 on march 12, the university of tennessee, the state's flagship public university, announced it would fully reopen in the fall semester, including doing all on-campus activities at full capacity. april 2021 on april 5, covid-19 vaccine eligibility was extended to all adults statewide. on april 27, governor lee declared the public health emergency over due to vaccine availability, and ended his emergency executive orders allowing 89 of tennessee's 95 counties to impose mask mandates. nashville, as part of davidson county, announced it would remove most public health orders on may 14. however, the mask mandate would remain, as it is part of the six counties with the power to mandate masks. may 2021 in may, after the fda approved the pfizer vaccine for use among adolescents, tennessee department of health (tdh) medical director of vaccines and immunization michelle fiscus issued an informational memo with language from the tdh general counsel explaining the mature minor doctrine present under state case law, which ruled that minors over the age of 14 are mature enough to consent to medical procedures such as vaccination on their own. the memo was met with criticism from other state officials, who saw the memo as an attempt to "undermine parental authority" by implicating plans to vaccinate children without parental consent. june 2021 in mid-june 2021 during a hearing of the state's government operations committee, the tdh was accused by republican lawmakers of "peer pressuring" teenagers and young adults to get the vaccine via outreach targeting the demographic, and lawmakers threatened to "dissolv and reconstitut" the tdh. state representative scott cepicky argued that "personally, i think it's reprehensible that you would do that, that you would do that to our youth.", and state senator kerry roberts stated that "it looks like the department of health is marketing to children and it looks like you're advocating. market to parents, don't market to children. period." governor lee later explained that the state planned to "continue to encourage folks to seek access, adults for their children and adults for themselves to make the choice, the personal choice for a vaccine." july 2021 by july 2021, tennessee had been affected by increasing cases of delta variant. on july 12, 2021, the state fired fiscus from the tdh; she cited disputes over the aforementioned memo as the likely reasoning, and stated that tennessee had also ceased all vaccine outreach specifically directed towards minors (including outreach unrelated to covid-19). fiscus told cnn that "it is just astounding to me how absolutely political and self-centered our elected people are here and how very little they care for the people of tennessee". and that "public health should never, ever, ever be political." the state argued that fiscus was fired due to her "failure to maintain good working relationships with members of her team, her lack of effective leadership, her lack of appropriate management, and unwillingness to consult with superiors and other internal stakeholders on projects." on july 23, tdh commissioner lisa pierce stated that the state would (as per lee's earlier statements) promote vaccination for minors via communications aimed towards parents and guardians. on july 27, lieutenant governor randy mcnally and several other republican state senators, including state senate majority leader jack johnson composed and signed a public letter recommending those tennesseans "who do not have a religious objection or a legitimate medical issue" get vaccinated. the senators who signed also stated that "nder no circumstances will the state of tennessee require mandatory vaccines or vaccine passports for adults or children" and that vaccination is ultimately a personal choice. also on july 27, amid changes in cdc guidance recommending masks be worn by all students and faculty of schools regardless of whether they are fully vaccinated, education commissioner penny schwinn stated that as before, the decision to mandate masks will be left to local county and city school districts; shelby county schools plans to require masks, while nearby city and county school districts are choosing to make masks optional. in an interview with wtvf aired july 28, fiscus accused governor lee of refusing to authorize use of the single-dose janssen vaccine in state health departments due to his religious views, citing claims that the vaccine was made using fetal tissue. the tdh states on its website that "fetal tissue was not used to make , nor any other, covid-19 vaccine. in developing its vaccine, used a fetal cell line, which no longer contains the original donor cells". the governor's communications director issued a statement that tennessee "has never limited or delayed the public's access to any of the approved covid-19 vaccines, either in public health departments or the pharmacy partnerships that have been a part of vaccine distribution." government response a barely-stocked shelf in the laundry detergent aisle at kroger in springfield. on march 5, governor bill lee reported the state's first case: a man in his 40s in williamson county who had recently traveled outside the state. on march 12, governor lee issued executive order no. 14 to declare a state of emergency until it expired on may 11. the order allows pharmacists to dispense an additional 30-day prescription provided it is to prevent the spread of the virus, allows for alternate covid-19 testing sites provided that the tennessee medical laboratory board is notified, restricts an excessive price increase of items and services until march 27, suspends maximum size limitations for vehicles participating in preventing the spread of the virus, and gives the tennessee commissioner of human services the ability to waive child care requirements as needed. a long line of customers at publix in smyrna. on march 13, the tennessee supreme court under chief justice jeff bivins issued a state of emergency order applying to the tennessee judicial branch. the order suspended in-person proceedings until march 31, and extended statutes of limitations and orders of protection that would expire on april 5 or before to april 6. additionally, governor lee banned traveling by state employees for non-essential government business, while also banning visitors and tours in nashville. the tennessee general assembly also banned the public from the legislative cordell hull office complex with only members, staff, and media allowed. on march 16, nashville mayor john cooper announced that bars would close across the county and imposed limitations on restaurants. on the same day, lee asked schools to close by march 20; on april 15, he recommended they stay closed through the end of the school year. on march 23, memphis mayor jim strickland and shelby county mayor lee harris issued executive orders to take effect 6:00 pm, march 24, requiring residents to remain at home unless they served essential services. the list of essential services was broad. the state has gradually collected more information in its coronavirus reporting. initially, tennessee was unable to reveal the counties where infected people lived. on march 10, the state government began reporting coronavirus cases by county, but it still did not have information regarding age and gender. currently, age, gender, race, and county information is published daily. on march 31, the state government was able to reveal the number of negative cases in each county. lee also signed an executive order allowing local governments to meet remotely after the legislature failed to do so. on march 25, during governor lee's daily covid-19 briefing, military commissioner major general jeff holmes announced that 250 members of the tennessee national guard had been mobilized to assist in the state's response and were receiving training in smyrna. small teams of guardsmen were dispersed across 35 counties to support coronavirus testing. members of the tennessee state guard were activated to assist the national guard's mission. on april 2, governor lee announced that he would sign executive order no. 23, which would call for all residents to stay home through april 14, unless they were carrying out essential activities. on april 13, lee extended the order to the end of the month, to align with president trump's plans for businesses to reopen in early may. the tennessee major metros economic restart task force was established on april 16, composed of mayors representing knoxville, memphis, nashville, and chattanooga, as well as business and health leaders. the task force would plan resumption of business suspended due to covid-19. governor lee announced on april 20 that the 'safer at home' order would expire on april 30, and the majority of businesses would be able to reopen the following day, may 1. on april 24, governor lee announced his reopening plan, applying to 89 of tennessee's 95 counties. it did not apply to nashville, memphis, knoxville, and chattanooga — tennessee's largest cities. instead, lee left reopening decisions to local leaders in those places. the guidelines allowed restaurants and retail stores to reopen on april 27 and 29, respectively. the state recommended that businesses should keep occupancy at 50% capacity and require employees to use cloth masks and gloves. on april 30, shelby county mayor lee harris and memphis mayor jim strickland announced that the city of memphis and its surrounding county were ready to "slowly start opening our economy back up and get memphians working again" on may 4. after a meeting of a "diverse group with ideological and political differences", it was determined that memphis would not be able to reopen with most of the rest of the state. memphis entered phase 1 of reopening on may 4. on may 7, nashville mayor john cooper announced that nashville has a "passing grade" and would begin phase 1 of reopening on may 11. this would bring nashville into closer alignment with the rest of the state, where some businesses reopened with partial capacity on may 1. on may 15, the governor's economic recovery group announced phase 2 of reopening. in this phase, starting may 22, 89 of tennessee's 95 counties (excluding the largest cities that determine their own timelines) would allow restaurants and retail to operate at full capacity with social distancing and not allowing groups of more than 10 people. also "large non-contact attractions" such as theaters, amusement parks, water parks, racetracks, museums, and auditoriums would be allowed to reopen with social distancing. knox county mayor glenn jacobs announced that knoxville would follow the state's guidelines. dollywood announced it planned to reopen "soon". on