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Alabama hasn’t met the White House’s gating criteria for reopening, and its capital city’s health care system has been overwhelmed this month as the number of positive coronavirus cases there more than doubled. Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed has warned that major hospitals have run out of ICU beds and nearly 500 people have tested positive over the past two weeks. Yet the state took another step forward in its three-week-old push to reopen, allowing entertainment venues like arcades, theaters and bowling alleys to open Friday afternoon. (McCaskill and Goldberg, 5/24)

What’s certain is the coming few months will say a lot about the state of the country, the public’s psyche and how much death and illness it’s willing to accept. With so much confusing data and contradictory political messaging on the reopening before the November elections, there is a road map to follow this summer to know if the fall will be a time of true recovery or deepening despair. Here are five story lines this summer that will reveal whether the U.S. has turned the corner. (Goldberg, Ollstein and Ehley, 5/25)

As coronavirus lockdowns loosen and some Americans flock to restaurants, beaches, and other outdoor spaces for Memorial Day weekend, the question of reopening too quickly is striking an eerily familiar tone. The global flu epidemic of 1918 remains the deadliest on record. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the pandemic killed an estimated 50 million worldwide and over half a million in the United States. J. Alexander Navarro of the University of Michigan’s Center for History of Medicine is one of the organizers of the “Influenza Archive,” a collection of information cataloging and studying the effects of the 1918 pandemic in 43 major U.S. cities. (Usero, 5/24)

The novel coronavirus arrived in an Indiana farm town mid-planting season and took root faster than the fields of seed corn, infecting hundreds and killing dozens. It tore through a pork processing plant and spread outward in a desolate stretch of the Oklahoma Panhandle. And in Colorado’s sparsely populated eastern plains, the virus erupted in a nursing home and a pair of factories, burning through the crowded quarters of immigrant workers and a vulnerable elderly population. As the death toll nears 100,000, the disease caused by the virus has made a fundamental shift in who it touches and where it reaches in America, according to a Washington Post analysis of case data and interviews with public health professionals in several states. (Thebault and Hauslohner, 5/24)

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said Monday that the city is “back on track” to move toward a gradual reopening after seeing a slight spike in new cases over the weekend. Meanwhile, Virginia reported a record number of new cases — mostly in the Washington suburbs — but the area’s leaders said they are planning for a transition to Phase 1 of reopening starting at the end of the week. Bowser said she would wait until Wednesday to decide whether to move to Phase 1 of the city’s reopening on Friday. She said she wants to see 14 days of declining community spread — calculated by the date of symptom onset and excluding cases at confined facilities such as nursing homes — before she makes a decision. (Chason and Zauzmer, 5/25)

Some scientists looking for ways to prevent a return to exponential growth in coronavirus infections after lockdowns are lifted are zeroing in on a new approach: Focus on avoiding superspreading events. The theory is that banning mass public events where hundreds of attendees can infect themselves in the space of a few hours, along with other measures such as wearing face masks, might slow the pace of the new coronavirus’s progression to a manageable level even as shops and factories reopen. (Pancevski, 5/24)

A spike in reported coronavirus cases in Redmond last week has been tied to family and social gatherings in the area. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports last week’s breakdown of coronavirus cases by ZIP code in Oregon reported eight new cases of COVID-19 in the central Oregon town. That brought Redmond up to only 18 reported cases to date, but amounted to an 80% change over the previous week – the highest in the state. (5/25)

Montgomery County rushed to create its own data dashboard last week, so elected leaders could justify to constituents why they remain stuck in a coronavirus shutdown. In Anne Arundel County, local officials secured their own virus tests, contact tracers and protective equipment, skeptical the state would provide enough. (Cox, 5/25)

As the total number of coronavirus infections in the Washington region topped 90,000 Sunday and fatalities hit 3,880, a one-day spike in the District’s numbers raised questions about whether it can begin reopening as expected on Friday. And social media ­images of a crowded Ocean City boardwalk and an unmasked Virginia governor mingling with beachgoers had many wondering whether safety guidelines meant to contain the disease were being taken seriously enough. (Heim, Tan, Vozzella and Zauzmer, 5/24)

When it comes to economic recovery, the coronavirus remains Public Enemy No. 1. But not far behind is an equally insidious force: uncertainty. In conversations with business leaders in recent days, it’s clear that simple uncertainty, as much as any particular policy or public-health imperative, is holding back the economy. Here are the kinds of questions they are asking: Are consumers ready to venture out in force even if they are free to do so? How does a big business navigate a patchwork of different state and local reopening plans and policies? How do we make mass transit safe enough for workers and consumers alike to return to normal life with confidence? (Seib, 5/25)

The forced distancing required by the coronavirus prompted several cities to quickly close some public roads to make room so cooped-up residents anxious to get outside for exercise could do so safely. Now, following moves to shut, narrow or repurpose streets from Oakland to Tampa, cities including Washington are seeking to understand how those emergency closures might have lasting impacts on some of urban America’s most important, and contested, real estate. (Laris, 5/25)

One hundred-forty clients at a hair salon in Missouri may have been exposed to COVID-19 after a second hairstylist at the location tested positive for the coronavirus. On Friday, the city of Springfield said 91 people — 84 clients and seven employees — had been exposed after a stylist worked for eight days while showing symptoms. Now, 56 more clients have been "potentially directly exposed," the city said Saturday, saying the second stylist at the Great Clips salon tested positive and worked for five days while "experiencing very mild symptoms." (Kesslen, 5/24)

As the rapid spread of COVID-19 disproportionately devastates black communities across the country, African Americans in the hair care business say stay-at-home orders and social distancing has crushed an industry which relies solely on clientele for a steady income. "When COVID hit it was like losing my livelihood overnight," Tiana Brown, 34, owner of That Chics Hair Suite in New Jersey, told ABC News. "I am a full-time stylist. That is my only income." (Eubanks, 5/26)