Pressure on Cooper mounts as business, hospital leaders fight over shelter-in-place
The leader of one of North Carolina’s biggest hospitals said Thursday that Gov. Roy Cooper needs to issue a statewide order for people not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary.
“I think we are at that point,” said Donald Gintzig, president and CEO of WakeMed. “Maybe a couple days past.”
Gintzig’s comments add to the growing chorus of calls from the health care industry to further shut the state down in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The N.C. Health Care Association, a lobbying group for North Carolina’s hospitals, wrote Cooper a letter Monday calling for a statewide shelter-in-place order.
That letter called such an order “the only resort left to immediately impact the growth and spread of the virus,” The News & Observer reported.
The group that represents home and hospice care providers in the state joined the hospitals Thursday in urging Cooper to enact a statewide shelter-in-place order.
“This serious measure is necessary to alter the trajectory of COVID-19 cases and allow the entire health care system to manage its limited resources to serve North Carolina,” Timothy Rogers, head of the Association for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina, wrote to Cooper. “Without such a drastic step, subsequent interventions will come too late and the ultimate human and economic consequences will be catastrophic.”
On Thursday, a spokesman for the governor said Cooper is reviewing all options.
“The Governor has been clear that strong action is necessary to protect North Carolinians and that decisions must be made deliberately on the advice of state health officials and medical experts, “ Cooper spokesman Ford Porter said. “As the Governor said yesterday, the state will be issuing additional guidance in the coming days.”
Gintzig’s comments Thursday were made to members of a task force the North Carolina General Assembly has assembled to start discussing how the legislature can help with the state’s coronavirus response.
The coronavirus spreads much more quickly than other diseases, and people can be contagious long before they start showing symptoms. With those factors in mind — and since it also has a higher fatality rate than diseases like the flu — Gintzig said there needs to be immediate action to try to stop the spread.
Some of the state’s largest cities, including Charlotte and Durham, have already issued stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders to their residents. Wake County was expected to announce a shelter-in-place order Thursday afternoon.
The details can vary slightly from city to city, but the gist is that public gatherings of more than a few people are banned and non-essential businesses must close as people are told not to leave their home except for specific trips, like to a grocery store or pharmacy.
The News & Observer reported that numerous industries are now lobbying to be considered “essential” if a statewide order does come — which business leaders also tend to oppose, even as health care professionals say it’s necessary.
Gintzig said local leaders deserve credit for taking action, but cities acting individually won’t be as efficient as the governor issuing a statewide order.
“This is a virus that takes about three weeks to present itself ... which is why the sooner we do it, the sooner you’ll see the curve, as they call it, flatten out,” he said.
The North Carolina Chamber of Commerce has strongly opposed the idea of a statewide order for people not to go out, citing the economic harm that would ensue.
Historic levels of job losses already
At around the same time Thursday that Gintzig was addressing state lawmakers, the federal government released national unemployment numbers that shattered records set during past recessions.
In the week from March 14-21, the data showed, 3.3 million people filed for unemployment — more than a tenfold increase from the week prior, and several times larger than even the worst weeks of the Great Recession.
Since Monday March 16 — the day before Cooper ordered many North Carolina bars and restaurants to shut down — nearly 200,000 North Carolinians filed for unemployment, as of Thursday morning.
The federal numbers released Thursday only show about half that many job losses in North Carolina, since the data lags by several days. And the federal numbers don’t reflect any of the new unemployment claims that are coming in after a second order from Cooper, this week, ordering businesses like gyms, movie theaters and salons to shut down too.
Gary Salamido, the president and CEO of the N.C. Chamber of Commerce, recently praised Cooper and other state officials for “steady leadership” while protecting public health. But he strongly urged against a more extensive statewide order that would close down even more businesses.
“The disruption a shelter-in-place order would generate for the private sector, and for North Carolina citizens whose financial well-being and overall welfare depends on their ability to work, cannot be [overestimated],” Salamido wrote over the weekend.
“It would fashion a massive disturbance that could create the opposite of its intended effect by interfering with the very economic activity that is protecting our state and its citizenry from disaster,” he added. “This concern has been shared with Governor Cooper and his team.”
This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 2:40 PM.
