As NC extends restrictions, officials in some counties blast ‘one size fits all’ policy
Some of Mecklenburg’s surrounding counties are pushing back against Gov. Roy Cooper’s decision Thursday to extend North Carolina’s stay-at-home order.
Cooper extended the order from April 29 to May 8. He also announced a plan to phase in a return to more normal life that could last into June or July.
“The data in Gaston County, the capacity at our hospital and the information from our health department does not support the continued shutting down of our businesses and our churches,” commissioners Chairman Tracy Philbeck told the Observer. “I cannot justify what the governor is doing to our citizens.”
Union County commissioners struck a similar note in a letter to Cooper on Thursday.
“Every community is different; every business is different; every family is different,” they wrote. “The people of North Carolina will suffer needless health and economic harm if the State continues to treat its diverse population with a one-size-fits-all approach.”
The letter is part of a reaction against the governor’s almost month-long stay at home order, which also closed “non-essential” businesses, essentially shut restaurants and bars and enacted social distancing and other steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19, which through Thursday had killed 253 people in North Carolina.
“It’s clear that we are flattening the curve but our state is not ready to lift restrictions yet,” Cooper said Thursday. “We need more time.”
A CBS News poll Thursday found that 70% of Americans believe it’s more important to slow the spread of the coronavirus than to restart the economy quickly.
But last week Lincoln County commissioners also urged the governor to reopen the economy. They said the restrictions “destroying the livelihood of our citizens must come to an end.”
At a meeting of Union County commissioners this week, Commissioner Frank Aikmus criticized the governor’s restrictions.
“Right now we’re conducting surgery with a machete instead of a scalpel,” he said.
If Cooper had not extended the order past April 29, Gaston County was poised to let people return to work the next day. Now, like every N.C. county, they’ll have to adhere to the governor’s order.
“It’s disheartening to see three counties, Mecklenburg, Wake and Guilford, be used as the model to shut down the whole state,” Philbeck said, “when it is factually . . . proven that counties could open up today, keep people safe and put people to work at the same time.”
Mecklenburg and Wake counties have the most confirmed cases in the state, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. Guilford has the sixth highest number of cases.
Commissioners in Gaston, Union and most surrounding counties are Republican. Cooper is a Democrat.
“At some point people are going to say they’ve had enough and they’re not going to obey those orders,” said Philbeck, a Republican. “I understand that people are scared and fearful. But I also understand that people need to get back to work.”
Union County Commissioner Stony Rushing, interviewed before Cooper’s Thursday announcement, said he believes people are ready to get back to work.
“We’ve done the stay at home, we’ve done the quarantine,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s as infectious as we’ve been told.”
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 6:09 PM.
