Alabama Coronavirus: No Change In Governor's Stay-At-Home Order

MONTGOMERY, AL — While governors in some states in the U.S. — including in neighboring Georgia — are reopening their businesses, Gov. Kay Ivey said in a news conference Tuesday that Alabama is not ready to do that.

"Our first concern is the health of our people," Ivey said. "Getting these COVID-19 numbers down and getting people back to work. Nobody wants to open businesses more than I do. Until we get more testing done we cannot re-open the economy."

Ivey said less than 1 percent of the population has been tested in Alabama, which is not enough to establish data that could warrant a full reopening of the economy.

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Dr. Scott Harris, the state's heath director, said numbers are promising in Alabama in recent days. "We are looking for confirmed cases to be going down over a two week period," Harris said. "We’re now seeing 160-170 cases a day, lower than recent weeks."

Harris added, "As people have stayed home, we’ve seen numbers improve in ways that are encouraging." He said he wants to make sure the most vulnerable people in the state are protected and that people need to remain patient, as the state "has a little further to go."

Ivey was asked if the stay-at-home order is still in effect, to which she replied that the order will remain in place until at least April 30.

"My opinion doesn't count," Ivey said. "It is the opinion of our healthcare professionals that will determine when we can reopen things. We have got to lower the COVID-19 rate. We need to see it start declining for a period of at least 10 days. We aren't there yet."

Ivey said she wants to see 14 days of declining cases. Thus far the state has seen five days of lower cases, which Harris said was encouraging.

Health officials last week predicted that Monday would be the peak in Alabama for COVID-19 cases. More than 5,100 cases have been confirmed in Alabama, with around 48,000 tests administered.

Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) backed Ivey's position on the stay-at-home order.

"I applaud Governor Ivey for taking a measured approach as she considers proposals to reopen our economy," Jones said. "Everyone wants to get our economy rolling again and I understand the incredible pressure the Governor is facing to rush this process and follow our neighboring states. Her remarks today about the importance of having more testing capacity than we currently have and putting our citizens’ health care needs first are spot-on. I also appreciate Dr. Harris’ comments acknowledging the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on African-Americans in Alabama."

Jones added, "Alabama has come a long way and I firmly believe that Governor Ivey’s stay-at-home order, and the decision by Alabamians to practice social distancing, has saved lives. Even with all the success we’ve seen, we need to be mindful that we are by no means out of the woods yet. We must ensure we can sustain the good progress we have made on the health care crisis, but we can only do so if we have a strong testing regime in place, reduce cases for two consecutive weeks, and continue social distancing practices before we can responsibly and safely re-open our economy for business."

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