GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (AP) — Exequiel Lopez hoisted himself up in the air and spun around, first horizontally, then upside down, supporting himself with one arm. Ideally, he'd be several feet in the air above a circus-tent crowd in some North Texas town, but on this hot Wednesday afternoon he settled for a shade tree in a vacant Grand Prairie parking lot, his aerial straps tied around a formidable branch.

Lopez, originally from Argentina, is one of more than 40 members of the Cirque MonteCarlo circus troupe camped out in the deserted parking lot. The novel coronavirus outbreak and the governmen...