State Rep. Jamie Kiel (R-Russellville) is seeking to take action to learn from what some would say is a mistake from the early stages of the state government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
At the outset, Gov. Kay Ivey, at the behest of State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris, mandated certain so-called nonessential businesses closed to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Whether or not that was an effective action is unknown, according to Kiel, because the virus persists.
However, what may have been an unintended consequence was concentrating individuals in one central location at a business deemed “essential” because other “nonessential” businesses were closed. Kiel’s prefiled HB103 would make it so that if one business could remain open, then other businesses and churches could remain open under the same guidelines.