Gov. Roy Cooper will hold a news conference Wednesday at 2 p.m. and is expected to discuss the possibility of easing the current COVID-19 restrictions. As it stand currently, North Carolina bars and restaurants are allow to operate at limited capacity, along with a strict 10 p.m. curfew. Two of the conditions expected to be relaxed by Cooper after he allowed schools to reopen across the state last week.
"I started having second thoughts almost the moment I sat down on the plane, because on the one hand, all of us who are parents have a responsibility to take care of our kids, take care of our family. That's something Texans have been doing across the state," said Cruz,
President Joe Biden and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper are working both sides of the COVID-19 argument when it comes to opening schools. In public, they've both urged the need for schools to be opened for regular business, but the reality is do they really?
According to U.S. News and World Report, at least 21,000 National Guard Troops from across the country have been called into the nation's capital. About 300 of them from North Carolina after the call for extra hands on deck. Cooper initially sent 200 troops north to help secure the ground around the Capitol.
Governor Roy Cooper is mobilizing 550 North Carolina National Guardsmen to bolster security in North Carolina and Washington, DC. With reports of demonstrations in state capitols, 350 of the guardsmen will stay here in North Carolina, and the remaining 200 are heading for Washington.
“I’m extending for three weeks the modified stay at home order that requires people to be home between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.,” Cooper said about the curfew. “Our other strong safety measures remain in place. The statewide mask mandate, closure of indoor bars and limits on mass gatherings and retail establishment capacity."
The Governor said getting the vaccines to the public was a "top priority right now." Phase 1B: Group 1 started in Charlotte on Wednesday. Anyone 75 years of age or older is eligible to be inoculated on an appointment basis.
North Carolina Roy Cooper signed an executive order to allow establishments that serve alcohol the option for to-go cocktail service on Monday. That's the point we're at in the pandemic. Please tell me how drive-thru booze lines are even important? I understand the efforts to curb the spread of Coronavirus, but where does this rank with everything else?
"As cases across the country continue to rise, we've seen rapid increases in our key metrics here in North Carolina," Cooper said during a press conference. "Our case counts have broken single-day records on three separate days in just the last week, and the percent of tests returning positive has increased to more than ten percent."
North Carolina waits to see if restrictions will tighten as the Governor's current executive order is set to expire on Friday at 3 p.m. ET. As it stands right now, businesses are operating at a reduced capacity with most restaurant dining rooms shut down entirely. Some Business owners fear that further restrictions could force them to close permanently.
