Stay-At-Home Order, Eviction Moratorium Extended In NC

Kimberly Johnson
Updated ·2 min read

NORTH CAROLINA — A statewide stay-at-home executive order aiming to curb the spread of coronavirus in North Carolina will be extended until late February, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Wednesday.

"That means the 10 p.m. curfew is still in place, as are the mask mandates, mass gathering limits, capacity limits for businesses and retail," Cooper said.

Extension of the existing executive order directs residents to stay in their homes between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. The order, which had initially been set to expire Jan. 29, will now be in effect until 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28, Cooper said.

Also extended is a statewide moratorium on evictions and an order allowing to-go and delivery sales of mixed alcoholic beverages, both through March 31.

"Health experts have shown that keeping people in their homes is an important way to slow the virus," Cooper said.

The news comes as the state reported nearly 6,000 new confirmed cases in the span of a day and that about 11 percent of tests conducted in the state were positive, according to North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services data. As of Jan. 27, at least 3,305 individuals in the state were hospitalized for coronavirus illness, and at least 8,915 deaths attributed to the virus in the state since March.

SEE ALSO: NC Vaccine Doses Will Be Limited This Week, DHHS Warns

"The sticking point right now for our state and the nation is not enough vaccine," Cooper said. "We do have thousands of shots, but there are millions of people who need two of them."

After a week of racing to exhaust North Carolina's supply on hand of first doses of COVID vaccine, state public health officials are bracing for very limited first-dose supplies sent to the state this week, made even tighter due to a scheduled mass vaccination event scheduled at Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium this weekend.

As of Wednesday, North Carolina healthcare providers had administered about 99 percent of the nearly 795,000 first doses of COVID vaccine in a bid to demonstrate to the federal government it needs to ramp up vaccine shipment to the state.

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This article originally appeared on the Across North Carolina Patch