GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — UPDATE: Guilford County commissioners did not extend the stay-at-home order for the county. The order expired Thursday at midnight.
But you still need to follow the statewide stay-at-home order which is in effect until April 29.
Commissioners said the reason for letting Guilford County's stay-at-home order expire is because it's already very similar to the state's.
Jeff Phillips, Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners emphatically stated, “The expiration of a local order is not a call to return to business as usual. Guilford County is still experiencing infection locally and we are not out of the woods. We still face, and we will continue to face for many more months, a virus that spreads through physical contact. It continues to be important that residents do everything they can to minimize the amount of physical contact with other people.”
Phillips added, “We support and encourage our residents to follow the measures outlined in the State’s Stay-At-Home Order; specifically, residents should only go out for essential purposes (such as obtaining food, seeking medical care, or going to work) and to keep social distancing and hand washing a priority.”
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Guilford County's stay-at-home order is set to expire at midnight on April 16. Governor Roy Cooper's state stay-at-home order doesn't expire until April 29.
So, even if the county doesn't extend the order, we will still be under Governor Cooper's executive stay-at-home order which is essentially the same: social distancing, the continued closure of non-essential businesses, and no large gatherings.
It is up to the county to decide whether or not to extend, and they have until midnight Thursday to do so.
Though it's ultimately not her call, Greensboro Mayor Vaughan weighed in saying she would like to see it extended.
"It sends the wrong message, we're going to open up more businesses and places you can go, but stay at home? What kind of message does that send?" she questioned.
Mayor Vaughan says she bases her input off of health officials.
"The health professionals that I speak with say it's a little too early to lift the stay at home order."
Mayor Vaughan said a May 1st extension would be best for public safety and health.
"We're not in the clear, the thing is we are not doing widespread testing," she explained. "We're just beginning to see the bend, the flattening of the curve and all of our hard work and all of our sacrifice could be wasted."
Governor Cooper also said lifting a stay-at-home order early would be 'catastrophic.'
The City of Winston-Salem has extended its stay-at-home order until May 7. Lexington said its stay-at-home order will expire on Saturday but the state's order must still be followed.
But Guilford County leaders are leaning on the side of cautious optimism that things will get back to normal sooner rather than later.
Here is a statement from Guilford County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jeff Phillips on the pending decision:
Conversations about whether or not to extend the Stay At Home order are underway and will be ongoing right up until any final decisions are made later this week.
We are continuing to closely examine all the influencing factors to come to what we believe to be the most prudent decision for Guilford County at this time.
That said, there does appear to some reason for cautious optimism due, in large part, to our collective efforts to stay at home as much as possible over the past several weeks while striving to follow CDC guidelines otherwise.
Again, I'm not taking anything for granted and we've got to continue to all do our part whenever and wherever possible, but in my view, we may have stemmed the tide of what could have been more of a worst-case scenario for our area.
We certainly can't ever take our eye off the critical importance of the health and safety of our citizens, however, we also have to consider the painful influence of a continued and more restrictive stay at home order on our local and regional economy, including the extreme challenges facing many of our small businesses.
These and many other serious factors are being considered as we look toward the Stay At Home order expiration on Thursday.