Gov. Cooper Says More Guidance and Restrictions Coming for North Carolina
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has announced additional statewide guidance and restrictions are coming soon, in order to help keep our state safe. “We must take this disease seriously. Young and old. Employers and employees,” Cooper said. No specific restrictions were announced in the news conference, but Cooper said they will be coming after more thoughtful consideration is done.
- There are now 504 cases of COVID-19 in 53 counties of the state.
- Almost 12,000 tests have been completed. Over 15,000 are pending results.
- First two deaths in state have been announced today. Likely will not be our last, according to Governor.
- “Please hear our requests today to maximize your social distancing.”
- Childcare hotline in place for children of critical care workers.
- On whether a statewide shelter in place order would be put in place: “We want people to stay home,” Cooper said. “Local communities are doing what they think is right. I understand that. It’s important for us to be deliberate and make sure we get this right. We will be issuing additional orders soon.”
- Additional personal protective equipment is needed in the state and many companies are helping by switching their operations to produce more.
- Regarding child care centers: “Clearly it is important for us to have child care for our front line responders and we want to do that in the best way possible.” Dr. Cohen: “What we’re asking is for families that are able to keep your children at home, thank you for that. We want to keep our centers open for front-line workers.” Must also increase measures to help keep children safe in operating centers.
- Regarding additional business restrictions on places like banks, post offices, etc.: “We have put some stringent requirements in place banning public gatherings. … We want to make sure that people stay home. In addition to the guidance that we’ve provided thus far, we are working on additional guidance to make sure people stay home as much as possible.”
- “Things are changing so rapidly. We’re trying to learn lessons from around the world and around this country,” Cohen said. “North Carolina was later in the course of seeing our first case. … We are going to have to work through this with the best data we have available at this time.”
.@NC_Governor These actions were difficult, but necessary to slow the spread of #COVID19. We know that further action to protect our state will be necessary.
— NCDHHS (@ncdhhs) March 25, 2020
Original story below:
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has called an unplanned news conference for 2 p.m.
“Gov. Cooper and members of the Coronavirus Task Force to hold a briefing on COVID-19 updates.”
We’ll have updates once the news conference begins.
You can view the live stream here: https://www.ncdps.gov/storm-update
