OMAHA — While most governors have imposed stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus, leaders of a handful of states have rejected such action.
Nine Republican governors, including Nebraska’s Pete Ricketts, have refused to mandate that people stay at home. Local leaders have taken action in some of those states, creating their own stay-at-home orders for individual cities or counties within their jurisdiction. North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas are the only states where no one is under a stay-at-home order.
All 93 Nebraskan counties are under some restrictions by state-level Directed Health Measures. None of the Directed Health Measures require people to remain in their homes. Governor Ricketts has verbally urged and encouraged Nebraskans to stay home; however, he has stopped short of ordering it and said in a press conference last week that “the state has a plan,” formulated in March, which does not include a stay-at-home order.
An infectious disease expert at the University of California-Berkeley says the longer officials wait, the harder it is for such orders to have a substantial impact on the virus’ spread.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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