The United States federal government developed a COVID-19 blueprint for states to follow; it included the issuance by state/local governments of “stay at home” orders coupled with lists of essential services. Suppliers of these services would be exempt from closure so their workers could fulfill their essential functions. The blueprint was embraced by the states in a variety of ways. In this paper, we identify how business closure rules were enacted across the states for each of 15 types of services. The outcome measures were: “open” “open with restrictions” and “closure”. For six business types, most states permitted businesses to open. In four types, businesses were mainly closed. In three, they were allowed to open with restrictions. In the rest, there was a mixture of outcomes. In sum, the federal blueprint resulted in a regulatory patchwork as it spread throughout the country.