Governor extends stay-home order to April 30

Gov. Brad Little extended his stay-home order to April 30 during a press conference this morning.

“We’ll continue to fight the coronavirus together and I appreciate your widespread support of your neighbors and your communities,” he said.

Little said efforts to flatten the curve on the virus’s impact on the state’s health care systems are working, but that more needs to be done.

“Everyone must ramp up their efforts to do two things,” he said: “social distancing and wearing masks in public.”

In one softening of the original order, signed March 25, Little announced that some retail businesses that are considered nonessential will be able to follow the lead of some restaurants. A retail business that can provide curbside service or delivery and does not violate the law or ignore social distancing and hygiene mandates can begin operating immediately, he said.

The original order heavily curtailed — and shuttered, in some cases — businesses throughout North Idaho and across the state as the pandemic has infected more than 2 million worldwide, killing more than 130,000.

Little said many previously identified nonessential businesses should prepare to re-open in stages after April 30, though he wouldn’t guarantee the order will expire April 30.

“Our goal is for most businesses to open after the end of the month, with the understanding that it may not be possible if there’s an upward trend in severe COVID-19 cases in Idaho between now and then,” he said.

Little also announced that most out-of-state visitors who enter the state will be required to self-quarantine for two weeks upon arrival. Only those who live in Idaho but work in another state — or vice versa — will not be required to self-isolate. He did not say how the self-quarantine would be monitored or enforced.