Governor Roy Cooper announced this Wednesday that North Carolina will remain in Phase 3 of reopening for another 3 weeks, due to the increased number of COVID-19 cases in our State.

Starting this Friday, December 11, 2020, Executive Order 181 will require people to stay at home between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. Sales of alcohol on-site at restaurants and bars will stop at 9:00 p.m., and the restaurants and bars must close by 10:00 p.m. This modification of the stay-at-home order is to try to prevent people from gathering in bars and restaurants unnecessarily.

Phase 3 began on October 2, 2020, putting limits on times that alcohol can be purchased, and limits on how many people can be gathered together at one time indoors.

New Hanover County was one of 36 counties that received a letter from the North Carolina health department, urging everyone to follow guidelines extra cautiously, due 300 or more spikes in cases over the past 14 days in these 36 counties.

In addition, the Chief Justice intends to issue an emergency directive postponing non-essential, in-person court proceedings for 30 days, beginning Monday, December 14, 2020.

In more positive news, there are 11 hospitals and healthcare facilities in North Carolina that will receive the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine hopefully by mid-December, if one is approved. The initial supply of vaccines is intended to go to these healthcare facilities to vaccinate nurses and other health care workers who are at high risk of exposure to COVID-19.

State and public health officials will continue to keep an eye on COVID-19 trends over the next several weeks to discuss if additional restrictions need to be put in place.

As Christmas 2020 approaches, we hope it will not become necessary, but if you or a loved one find yourself in need of an attorney for a serious personal injury, or you get into trouble with a criminal matter, or receive a traffic ticket, please give our office a call for a confidential consultation. We handle matters in New Hanover, Pender, and Brunswick Counties. If you have court in Brunswick County, the Courthouse is located in Bolivia, North Carolina. The New Hanover County Courthouse is located in Wilmington, and the Pender County Courthouse is located in Burgaw, North Carolina. We also handle wills and estates with our of counsel attorney, Mitch Baker. 

By Karen M. Thompson, Paralegal

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2020 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.