photo credit: Claudio Divizia // Shutterstock

As the coronavirus continued to spread and people are encouraged to practice social distancing by staying at home, many are losing jobs. In North Carolina, there were 113,002 unemployment claims in just one week. Officials saying 87% due to the virus.

Governor Roy Cooper spoke on Monday announcing the signing of a new executive order that requires some types of businesses to close, prohibit gatherings of 50 people or more, change visitation practices at nursing homes and restrict the use of playground equipment at local parks.

The restrictions include:

• Closing movie theaters, fitness clubs, gyms, hair and nail salons, barber shops, spas, tanning, massage, and tattoo salons, and other professional grooming services;
• Canceling mass gatherings of 50 or more people (which includes both staff and patrons). This does not include organizations that provide critical services like hospitals, government operations and financial institutions. It also excludes retailers that provide essentials goods like grocery stores, pharmacies, pet stores and hardware stores;
• Requiring nursing homes, long-term care facilities and assisted living centers to cease group activities that don’t allow for social distancing. Residents can only have one adult visitor per day, unless it is an end-of-life situation, and the visitor must be screened for:
  • fever of 100.4-degrees or higher,
  • a cough and
  • difficulty breathing before they can enter the building;

• Prohibiting the use of playground equipment at public and private parks. This does not include backyard playgrounds or other amenities such as greenways and walking trails; and
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• Recommendations that retail businesses screen their employees and customers for fever and respiratory illness before they enter the facility and turn away those who are sick.

The order will go into effect on Wednesday.