ROCKINGHAM — No more sitting down at a restaurant for dinner or going out for a drink for the foreseeable future.
Gov. Roy Cooper’s office announced Tuesday morning that all bars are to close and all restaurants are to stop dine-in service effective at 5 p.m. Take-out and delivery services will still be allowed.
An announcement of a new executive order is scheduled to be made at 2 p.m.
The order is not yet available online.
There is also expected to be news regarding unemployment benefits.
Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, has already made a statement regarding the benefits:
“At $3.8 billion, North Carolina has one of the largest unemployment reserves in the country. Reforms put in place years ago helped build that large balance to allow the state to adjust its benefits program in response to an economic downturn.
“Between federal unemployment assistance and any adjustments made to the well-funded state program, assistance will be in place for North Carolinians impacted by the economic fallout from efforts to contain the virus.
“What adjustments to the state program might be necessary will become clearer once we have more finality on what the federal program will look like. But we have a multibillion surplus for times like this.”
Some Richmond County restaurants and bars were ahead of the curve, with Double Vision announcing its closure Monday evening and several restaurants offering curbside service.
There is no information yet on how long the shutdowns are supposed to last.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is no longer showing the number of cases in the state, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still showing 33 for North Carolina and 4,226 nationwide. So far, the CDC is reporting there have been 75 deaths.
