Governor urges counties, municipalities to use fines, more restrictions

RALEIGH — Gov. Roy Cooper wants counties and municipalities to implement tighter coronavirus restrictions and fine those not abiding by his or their orders.

He and state cabinet-level Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen on Wednesday unveiled a three-tier coronavirus alert system tied to how a county is measured. The system uses the colors red for critical community spread, orange for substantial community spread and yellow for significant community spread.

Bladen County is one of 43 counties in orange, better than 10 counties that are red and worse than 47 in yellow. The determination is based on case rate and the threshold for either percent positive or hospital impact. Bladen County has had 1,213 cases since the pandemic began and is monitoring 96 active cases with two people in the hospital, its Health Department said Wednesday. There have been 19 deaths in the county, though none since Oct. 13.

The outline of “strongly recommended” actions include for counties and municipalities to adopt ordinances that allow use of civil penalties for enforcement of statewide restrictions; use the fire marshal, or other regulators and inspectors with local law enforcement, to enforce mass gathering limits; and adopt ordinances with additional restrictions on public facing businesses.

Contacted by email following the afternoon briefing, there was no immediate indication of actions being taken by Bladen County Manager Greg Martin, Sheriff Jim McVicker or Elizabethtown Town Manager Eddie Madden. Martin and Madden wrote in emails they were reviewing the new information.

In an email Thursday, McVicker said his office and the Elizabethtown police have had success educating and encouraging the public to wear masks even if they don’t agree with it. Law enforcement, he pointed out, is not authorized to criminally enforce the requirements; citations can be written to businesses and organizations that fail to enforce the requirement.

The case rate is the number of new cases in 14 days per 100,000 people. The percent positive is figured using the percent of tests that are positive over 14 days. The hospital impact is measured using a “composite score based on the impact that COVID-19 has had on hospitals including percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations, COVID-19 related visits to the Emergency Department, staffed open hospital beds, and critical staffing shortages over 14 days,” a release says.

Bladen’s orange status means there has been moderate impact on Bladen County Hospital, the percent of tests is 8 to 10 percent, and the rate of cases is 101 to 200 new cases per 100,000 people over 14 days with at least 21 cases in 14 days.

The county would move to red if there is high impact on Bladen County Hospital, the percentage of tests coming back positive exceeds 10 percent, and there are greater than 200 new cases per 100,000 people over 14 days with at least 42 cases in 14 days.

The governor’s instruction to counties that are deemed red or orange includes “strongly recommended” actions for individuals, for businesses and organizations, and for public officials.

These include for individuals:

• Limit mixing between households and minimize the number of people in a social circle.

• Avoid settings where people congregate, to include outdoor bars, night clubs.

• If ordering from restaurants, consider ordering take-out or eating outdoors socially distanced.

• High-risk individuals should stay home as much as possible.

• Reduce public interactions to mainly essential activities. This would mean work or school, caring for family members, buying food, getting health care or picking up medications.

Recommendations for businesses include:

• Use teleworking if able and cancel nonessential work travel.

• Promote testing, and Count on Me training.

• Consultations with DHHS are recommended for manufacturing, construction, food processing and farm sites.

• For institutes of higher education, restrictions on student gatherings is recommended, along with closing indoor dining, reducing to single occupancy in dorms, and avoiding in-person indoor events for community and religious organizations.

Recommendations for public officials include:

• Meeting with state officials to discuss plans for mitigating the spread of the virus.

• Expand availability of no-cost testing.

• Increase availability of noncongregate housing.

• Increase messaging on risks.

• Adopt ordinances that allow use of civil penalties for enforcement of statewide restrictions.

• Use the fire marshal, or other regulators and inspectors with local law enforcement, to enforce mass gathering limits.

• Restrict alcohol sales at places where it is consumed at the site.

• Adopt ordinances with additional restrictions on public facing businesses.

The state’s three highest population counties of Mecklenburg, Wake and Guilford are all in the yellow. Mecklenburg County has had 425 deaths and 39,166 positive cases since the pandemic began, Wake County 282 deaths and 25,321 cases, and Guilford County 222 deaths and 14,549 cases. The three counties rank 1-2-3 in each respective measure.

Nearly 40 percent of the state’s cases and deaths since the pandemic began are statistically represented in 13 metropolitan counties surrounding those three urban hubs.