March 18th, 2020
Robert Newsom, Hopkins County Judge, issues an emergency declaration for the citizens of Hopkins County. This Declaration issues a State Of Disaster for the county. This will last for seven days unless extended, as it will be evaluated by county commissioners as soon as Monday, March 23rd. Events in Hopkins County will now be limited to have no more than 10 people in a social gathering. This undoubtedly will affect a large number of events in Hopkins County. KSST News will continue to update this page as we get more information.
Dining rooms in restaurants are not restricted at this time, unless they have larger parties considered “social gatherings”. Restaurants may utilize their dining rooms with no tables seated for more than ten and all occupied tables more than six to ten feet apart. As many restaurants go to curbside pick-up and delivery, most have already made these arrangements.
School Board, county meetings, and city meetings can still go on as they are not considered “social gatherings” Plans are being developed to help attendees of these meetings achieve social distancing. All Civic Center events for the next two weeks are cancelled according to Civic Center general manager, Lonnie Fox. Future events beyond that will be evaluated weekly as the health scare continues.
Although the emergency declaration comes from the County Judge, input was received from city, county, state, and emergency officals. Jason Ricketson spoke as to the reasoning of putting this plan in place. He said, “As we see the numbers of positive test results rise in other parts of the state, we think distancing is important as to not overwhelm our local medical resources.” Again, no positive tests for coronavirus has been returned from any patient in Hopkins County. Ricketson also stressed the importance of the younger generation to heed these warning to protect the older generations.
This will affect all churches but retail stores will be able to limit their total customers as they see fit. Social distancing between customers should be offered at these establishments, but the total amount of customers at one time will be controlled by the each individual store.
Judge Newsom ugred citizens to band together to get through this crisis.
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