Governor Janet T. Mills at Her Daily Press Briefing in Augusta Recently.
Governor Janet Mills today issued a series of substantial new mandates to protect public health and safety in the face of COVID-19, including a Stay Healthy at Home directive that requires people living in Maine to stay home at all times unless for an essential job or an essential personal reason, such as obtaining food, medicine, health care, or other necessary purposes.
The Governor also mandated a series of other new restrictions, including:
- for essential businesses and operations that remain open limiting the number of customers in their building at any one time, implementing for their customers and employees in and around their facilities,
- prohibiting the use of public transportation unless for an essential reason or job that cannot be done from home and limiting the number of people traveling in private vehicles within the immediate household unless transporting for essential activities,
- mandating the continued termination of classroom or other in-person instruction until at least May 1, 2020,
- Mandating that, when out of the home or when at work, at an essential business, individuals shall maintain a minimum distance of six feet from other persons
The Executive Order takes effect at 12:01 am on April 2, 2020 and will last at least until April 30th. The Governor may amend, rescind or review this timeline in her discretion. The Governor extended the closure of restaurants and bars statewide for dine-in customers until at last April 30, 2020 to align with today’s Executive Order.
note: The scheduled blood drives starting tomorrow, April 1, and continuing for another nine weeks will NOT be affected by this new Executive Order from the Governor according to Ann Kim, Communications Director for the Northern New England American Red Cross. She did not have information on how many prospective blood donors had made appointments for the first day, April 1, or succeeding days.