North Carolina will enter a modified stay-at-home order starting Friday, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday, which will entail a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. with many businesses required to close early.
Businesses required to close by 10 p.m. include restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, most retail stores and more. Additionally, onsite alcohol consumption sales must end by 9 p.m. This order will remain in effect through at least Jan. 8. Exceptions to the travel restrictions include travling for work, getting groceries, taking “care of a family member, friend, or pet in another household” and more, and people experiencing homelessness are exempt. The order states that law enforcement personnel are only to enforce this “in cases of willful or repeated violations.”
“As cases across the country continue to rise, we’ve seen rapid increases in our key metrics here in North Carolina,” Cooper said. “I know that news of effective and safe vaccines has given us all hope. But vaccines aren’t here yet. We have to act now to save lives, safeguard our hospital capacity, and preserve our economy.”
Cooper’s executive order follows multiple single-day records for positive COVID-19 cases last week, with some daily case counts over 6,000 and with more than 10% of returned tests being positive. Just last month, a daily record was set on Nov. 11 for 3,000 cases.
The order also urged residents in all counties to avoid holiday travel and to get the COVID-19 vaccine when it’s available and their turn. The number of “red,” critical community spread counties has more than doubled from the Nov. 23 County Alert, the order said, up to 48 from 20 counties.
“This paints a dramatic picture of where we are,” N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said of the state’s trends, which also includes record hospitalizations. “This virus is highly contagious and dangerous, but we can slow it down. Do not wait until it is you or your loved one who is sick with COVID to wear a mask, wait six feet apart and wash your hands often.”
In North Carolina, there have been 404,032 cases, with 4,670 reported since Monday. Currently, 2,373 people are in the hospital and 5,605 people have died from COVID-19. In Chatham County, categorized by state metrics in the middle “substantial spread” county alert system, there have been 2,481 COVID-19 cases and 65 deaths.
“This is a very challenging time in the pandemic,” Chatham County Health Director Mike Zelek told the News + Record following the Governor’s update. “While the prospect of a vaccine gives us hope, it will be some time before most in the Chatham community have been vaccinated. Right now, the most important thing we can do is stay home, avoid gathering with others, and wear our masks. That is how we stay healthy and save lives.”
Before taking questions from members of the media, Cooper thanked healthcare workers for the “tremendous sacrifices” they’re making to treat the state’s growing number of COVID-19 cases, even under “excruciating physical and emotional stress. He urged North Carolinians to show appreciation for these workers by doing their part to reduce the burden.
“We have to get these numbers down. Our new modified stay at home order aims to limit gatherings and get people home where they are safer, especially during the holidays,” he said.
“I know many people didn’t expect to be living this way in December. This year has been tiring and frustrating and painful and with the holidays here, many of us feel it more deeply. But the stakes are dire — this is truly a matter of life and death.”
Reporter Hannah McClellan can be reached at hannah@chathamnr.com.