RALEIGH, N.C.- After months of Phase 2: Safer at home, Gov. Roy Cooper overruled some restrictions placed on position to curb the spread of coronavirus in North Carolina.
Channel nine learned that Cooper is expected to make the announcement Tuesday.
[Phase 2 lasted at least five more weeks; here’s what you want to know]
A spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services issued a saying: “The governor plans to make a percentage of the data on the next phase of easing the restrictions tomorrow, which would take effect later this week.”
North Carolina is in Phase 2 of Cooper’s three-part plan to reopen from May 22.
The phase has reopened restaurants, restaurants, hairdressers and nail salons, tattoo parlors and swimming pools, but has excluded bars, gyms, cinemas and amusement parks, which have been closed since March 30, when Cooper issued a decree for the first time.
[“This will replace a lot”: local businesses will reopen from Phase 2]
Phase 2 has already been extended three times, and Cooper said new cases, hospitalizations and deaths were going in the wrong direction.
Joe Bruno of Channel 9 spoke to North Carolina’s most sensible fitness officer, Dr. Mandy Cohen, who said the state’s numbers have now stabilized at such a point that it may begin reopening.
He said it would not be a general reopening, but a “small step forward.”
Governor Roy Cooper will announce the easing of some restrictions.Don’t expect everything to change. Mandy Cohen tells me that the announcement through Gov. Roy Cooper will be a “small step forward.”Coverage in 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11 @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/eKdDkyBWU3
The final Phase 2 order is expected to last until September 11, however, Cooper’s announcement may bring back this timeline with adjustments that may take effect later this week.
Cohen declined to say precisely what the adjustments were, but said the governor gave the final touches to the announcement and did not need to move forward.
Changes are coming. Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to announce the upcoming easing of restrictions on Tuesday and are expected to take effect later this week pic.twitter.com/ysM6pZAmbQ
A imaginable replacement: gyms. They’ve been closed lately, but many expected to reopen when restaurants and retail stores reopened last May.North Carolina is one of the last states to reopen them.
Cohen said state fitness officials were comfortable with the existing coronavirus number scenario in North Carolina and could move on.
Do you have any questions about the coronavirus pandemic and its effect in the Carolinas?We have a full segment committed to covering the epidemic – CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
“We have said that we will continue to observe our signals and trends and we need to move forward.I think the people of North Carolina have worked hard to keep our viral spread stable.I think we’ve moved on,” he said.
Despite the option to ease some restrictions, the governor’s curfew for alcohol, which prohibits alcohol intake at the site after 11 p.m., ran until October 2.
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