Gov. Cooper expected to announce state reopening plans. How to watch his press conference.
Editors’ note: Here’s full coverage of Thursday’s press conference with Gov. Cooper and Dr. Cohen. The previous version of this article continues below the link.
Gov. Roy Cooper will address the state at 3 p.m. Thursday where he’s expected to unveil his plans for the social restrictions that have been in place aimed at slowing spread of the coronavirus.
The news conference is available to view here or live on https://www.ncdps.gov/storm-update with English and Spanish feeds offered.
Major network affiliated television stations in markets around the state, such as ABC11 in the Triangle, normally televise Cooper’s press conferences live as well.
Cooper’s stay-at-home executive order is due to expire on April 29. That order, along with his other orders put in place since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus to be a worldwide pandemic on March 11, have closed schools and non-essential businesses while declaring gatherings of 10 or more people illegal.
Such moves by governors throughout the country have slowed the nation’s economy and caused hundreds of thousands of people to file for unemployment. State governments are making plans to reopen businesses while still dealing with the active pandemic.
Dr. Mark McClellan, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner under President George W. Bush from 2002-04 who now heads the Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University, said North Carolina is not ready for a full reopening of all businesses and social life.
“We are definitely not in a complete containment mode,” McClellan told the News & Observer this week, “not around the country, not in many parts of the state. There are still an upward number of cases and still some outbreaks happening.”
According to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, 7,608 COVID-19 cases had been recorded statewide as of Thursday morning with 253 deaths. Cases have been reported in 93 of the state’s 100 counties.
McClellan praised the state’s move thus far for slowing the virus’ spread and protecting the public. The next steps, he said, must be done slowly to prevent a significant surge in cases. Cooper said testing, tracing and case trends will be monitored.
“The next big step is turning the steps and approaches that the governor has laid out, political leaders in both parties have laid out, for moving forward on reopening,” McClellan said. “Doing that in an orderly, incremental but hopefully successful way. I think the framework the state is using with an emphasis on testing and tracing, an emphasis on making sure we have healthcare capacity, both for any potential future surge and the health needs of North Carolinians and making sure we can actually track down when there are positive cases.”
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 11:13 AM.