North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Wednesday he plans to gradually loosen COVID-19 social distancing restrictions.
Cooper said he will start to pull back the state’s stay-at-home order once North Carolina makes more strides toward monitoring the respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus.
“The stay-at-home orders are working, but we know our current situation is not sustainable in the long run,” he said. “We can’t stay home forever.”
Cooper also said he expects the disease to linger until a vaccine is found, which could take up to one year.
Before lifting any restrictions, the state would need to increase COVID-19 testing and trace how North Carolinians are contracting it, he said.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) needs to hire more staff and obtain more technology to assist with the tracing efforts, Cooper said.
State experts also would have to examine how COVID-19 has affected various regions and populations in the state. Those trends could influence policy decisions.
State officials plan to look at positive cases, hospital capacity, hospitalizations, deaths and the availability of personal protective equipment.
“Because we acted early and because we acted together, we have averted the devastating scenarios we have seen playing out in other parts of our country and across the globe,” NCDHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said Wednesday. “We now need to look ahead at how we stay ahead of the curve. Widespread testing, aggressive contact tracing, and data-informed policy decisions are our best tools to keep our communities safe and protect our frontline workers.”
North Carolina reported its deadliest day of the pandemic Wednesday, with 18 new deaths. NCDHHS reported 5,123 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, including 117 deaths and 431 current hospitalizations.
Mecklenburg County (1,015) has reported more cases than any other North Carolina county. More than half of the overall cases were identified in non-Hispanic whites.
Thirty-eight percent of the positive cases are people who are 25-49 years old. Yet, 80 percent of the deaths were people 65 years old or older who are at higher risks for severe symptoms.
Cooper said expert advice calls for lifting restrictions bit-by-bit to avoid overwhelming hospitals.
“Experts tell us it would be dangerous to lift our restrictions all at once. Rather than an on/off light switch, we are viewing this as a dimmer switch that can be adjusted incrementally,” he said.
