COVID-19 pandemic
On March 12, 2020, in response to the growing number of COVID-19 cases, Lee issued an executive order declaring a temporary state of emergency in Tennessee to "facilitate the treatment and containment of COVID-19." He extended the "stay-at-home" mandate through April 2020. Lee issued further orders for a "limited continuing state of emergency" through 2020 and 2021 to facilitate the state's eligibility for federal economic aid, and allowed the Tennessee National Guard and Tennessee State Guard to continue to assist with COVID-19 response efforts.
In March 2020, as the number of COVID-19 cases grew, Lee urged school districts to close through March to prevent the further spread of the disease. In April, as the number of COVID-19 cases continued to grow, he asked all school districts to close for the remainder of the school year. In October 2020, after a member of Lee's security detail tested positive for COVID-19, Lee said that he and his wife would quarantine at home, likely for two weeks.
Throughout the pandemic, Lee opposed a statewide mask mandate and "touted Tennessee for being one of the last to close early in the pandemic and among the first to reopen." On April 28, 2020, Lee signed an executive order allowing gyms in 89 out of 95 counties to open on May 1. By September, he lifted restrictions on businesses and gathering restrictions in Tennessee, except for the state's six most populous counties. By April 2021, Lee declared that COVID-19 was "a managed public health issue in Tennessee and no longer a statewide public health emergency"; ended local authority on mask mandates in 89 counties; and called for remaining local restrictions to be lifted.
As the highly contagious Delta variant spread in Tennessee, Lee said that he had "no real concern" over it. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surged in Tennessee from July to August 2021. Tennessee's COVID-19 vaccination rate was among the lowest in the country. Lee encouraged Tennesseans to get vaccinated, but opposed vaccine mandates and, amid the resurgence of COVID-19 cases, maintained that it was a personal choice whether to get vaccinated. He also dismissed suggestions for a return to restrictions or offering COVID-19 vaccine incentives.
In 2021, Lee blocked the Tennessee Department of Health from reaching out to teenagers to encourage them to get vaccinated. In July 2021, his administration fired the state's vaccine chief, Michelle Fiscus, who had angered some Republican state legislators by promoting vaccination for eligible youth. The state Health Department stopped vaccination-related outreach to minors for all diseases, not only COVID-19. Lee opposed offering vaccine incentives even as the Tennessee government spent nearly $500,000 to incentivize farmers to vaccinate cattle against respiratory disease as part of the "Herd Health" program, launched in 2019 under Lee.
In August 2021, Lee signed an executive order that allowed parents to let their children opt out of school mask mandates. The next month, Lee vowed to fight President Joe Biden's plan to require COVID-19 vaccines for federal employees and federal contractors, as well as to require businesses with more than 100 employees to require vaccination or weekly COVID-19 testing; Lee asserted that the action was unconstitutional.
In November 2021, Lee signed a bill into law that restricted the ability of localities to implement public health restrictions, such as mask mandates.
