More NC Counties Aligning with Statewide Pandemic Protocols

Earlier in the year as pandemic contagion accelerated, many counties and municipalities issued proclamations to restrict social activity within their local jurisdictions creating a patchwork of dos and don'ts for anyone in North Carolina (NC). Local proclamations along with Governor Roy Cooper's March 27th Statewide Executive Order(EO) 121 were generally called Stay-at-Home Orders.

All local governments are subject to statewide stay-at-home orders, but local governments can be more stringent. Some counties and municipalities imposed restricted access at their borders and others put evening curfews in place. The effective timelines varied depending on when a local government first created restrictions and what type of time limit they imposed. Some were effective until a date certain, others until rescinded or modified. Some county orders covered unincorporated areas and consenting municipalities while some cities had their own orders within the county.

Finding the most recent stay-at-home order for any given city or county became an exercise in patience. No standard conventions were in place to share orders. One county might have the order displayed prominently on their website, another might have a link to the order in news release. Still others used Facebook as their primary repository for the public record.

The North Carolina Manufacturers Alliance (NCMA) began monitoring the collection of orders when they first began showing up so that our members and other manufacturers in NC could see at a glance the applicability of any local government restrictions to their activities. Fortunately, most government entities adopted the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) guidelines for essential work which most manufacturers meet. Local orders and statewide orders provided exemptions to maintain CISA essential activities.

Effective May 22, 2020, NC Governor Roy Cooper signed EO 141 and moved from statewide Stay-at-Home orders to Safer-at-Home Recommendations and Phase two easing of restrictions. Most local governments have rescinded their orders or formally incorporated State EOs to create consistency with statewide recommendations.

NCMA continues to monitor the few local governments with local preferences. The current status of proclamations, declarations, curfews and orders are available on an interactive map at the NCMA Coronavirus Website .