In a press conference today, Governor Roy Cooper announced that he will be extending the stay at home order until at least May 8th, 2020.
In a statement on Twitter, the Governor said:
"This decision is based on the data that we see in our critical categories. I know people want our lives and our livelihoods back, and I have a plan to do that. But first we will need to hit certain metrics in order to do that."
He continued to emphasize the 3 T's of the approach to deal with COVID-19 moving forward: Testing, Tracing and Trends.
Gov. Cooper went on to say that we are on the right path, but that North Carolina is not yet ready to lift restrictions.
Responses to the news on Twitter were mixed.
In her report, Dr.Mandy Cohen said that while the trajectory of COVID-like syndromic cases had leveled off over 14 days, the trajectory of positive cases and hospitalizations are not yet where they need to be.
The Governor then outlined details of his plan to ease the restrictions across the state in 3 phases: