Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell is extending the Stay Home Stay Safe order until 11:59 p.m. April 30, 2020. The decision to extend the Stay Home Stay Safe order was made following President Donald Trump and Governor Gregg Abbott’s move to extend their executive orders. The Stay Home Stay Safe directives are intended to help control the spread of COVID-19 by keeping people isolated at home.
“Challenging times call for us to make hard decisions, but these have been made with the priority to keep our community as safe as possible, especially those who are part of the vulnerable population,” said Williamson County Judge Gravell.
With the extension of the Stay Home Stay Safe order in place, the goal is to prevent exceeding hospital capacity and to avoid overwhelming the health care system which is currently working around the clock to tend to those who have been impacted by COVID-19.
After receiving guidance from the Williamson County and Cities Health District and following The University of Texas at Austin model on social distancing, it is crucial that we continue limiting our interaction by up to 90 percent in order to flatten the curve and reduce the spread of the virus.
“The UT model shows that approximately 100,000 people in Williamson County could end up contracting COVID-19. Of those, they predict 5,000 will be hospitalized with nearly 800 in intensive care and hundreds dying. The only way to prevent this is to be vigilant in our efforts at social distancing and staying home,” said Judge Gravell.
Under this extension, essential activities and businesses may continue their operations.
For more information on the Stay Home Stay safe extension and a list of what is allowed under this order visit, www.wilco.org/coronavirus.