Updates from Gov. Cooper’s COVID-19 briefing:
North Carolinians have done hard work, staying at home, social distancing & wearing face coverings. The good news is your work has prevented an overwhelming spike in infections. The harder news is that there’s no cure or vaccine for COVID-19, and the virus continues to circulate.
We must be cautious and methodical with plans to ease restrictions. Removing them all at once would cause a surge in new cases, more people in the hospital & more North Carolinians dying. We have to keep taking precautions to keep people safe, but we can’t stay at home forever.
Because the combination of our indicators tell us that our trends are mostly decreasing or leveling, I have signed an Executive Order to move North Carolina into Phase 1 of easing restrictions. This order begins this Friday, May 8, at 5 pm.
I want to be clear – North Carolina’s Stay At Home order will remain in place. But it will be modified to allow for more reasons for people to leave home and to allow for more commercial activity.
Phase 1 removes the designations of essential and non-essential businesses. Retail stores can increase to 50 percent capacity as long as they implement social distancing. The order allows people to leave home to visit open businesses and it encourages parks & trails to re-open.
Businesses that were specifically closed in the last order will remain closed such as salons, barbers, theaters, bars, gyms & pools. Restaurants will continue to be open for takeout or delivery only. These businesses will have the opportunity to open and do more in Phase 2.
Gatherings in this order are still limited to 10 people, but people will be able to socialize with friends as long as they are outdoors and they are socially distanced. In Phase 1, people are still encouraged to telework when possible.
As certain businesses come back online, we know the need for childcare will increase. And Phase 1 will allow child care centers to re-enroll children whose parents are back at work or looking for work, as long as the centers follow strict cleaning requirements.
We are paying attention to First Amendment rights such as protesting & worship services. Under this order these activities are allowed outdoors with more than 10 people as long as there is social distancing.
We’ll continue the Stay At Home order because it’s still best for people to stay at home. And when people do leave home, we want folks to remember the three W’s: Wear a face covering, Wait 6 feet apart from other people and Wash your hands.
This order is set to expire on May 22, but if our indicators are not in the right place, we'll extend Phase 1 longer than two weeks. We are easing restrictions in a data-driven way.
Phase 1 is designed to be a limited easing of restrictions that can give people safe opportunities to socialize & boost parts of our economy while keeping safety restrictions in place. And we can only boost our economy when people have confidence in their safety.
I have seen countless stories of North Carolinians looking out for each other as we work to make it through day by day. Whenever you stay home, sanitize a grocery cart, go out wearing a face covering and stay physically distant, you are looking out for your neighbor.
