Many local officials seeing a rise in cases have struggled to put in place robust restrictions that would help slow the spread of the outbreak. In Albany, Ga., a city of 73,000 where there have been 16 deaths and more than 160 confirmed cases of the virus, Mayor Bo Dorough imposed a stay-at-home order, similar to those enacted in New York, Illinois and California. But other than Albany and one nearby county, no other jurisdiction in southwest Georgia has restricted people’s movements or ordered businesses deemed nonessential to close.
“It’s not a natural disaster that’s confined to a certain geographic place,” Mr. Dorough said. “The county lines don’t mean anything to the virus.”
In Mississippi, the state government had largely resisted calls to put in place regulations around the virus. That had led to a jumble of regulations, as mayors of cities in Oxford, Jackson and Tupelo closed bars and restaurants and established shelter orders not much different than the rules in Houston, New Orleans, New York, Boston or San Francisco.
“You can only go so far with leading from below,” said Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba of Jackson, the capital, which has more than 31 confirmed infections. “We need the state.”
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