By Joshua Huff, sports editor
MONTGOMERY — As Georgia and Tennessee move to begin reopening their respective states, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced during a Tuesday, April 21 press conference in the Old House Chamber of the Alabama State Capitol, that the state’s stay-at-home order will continue as planned, until April 30.
Her announcement follows Alabama Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth and state Rep. Danny Garrett’s Small Business Emergency Task Force calling for the immediate reopening of small retailers and restaurants along with phased openings for other businesses with proper safety measures in place.
“This requires a strategic approach as well as a team effort to strike the proper balance between keeping our people safe and healthy and also addressing our state’s overall economic health,” Ivey said of her decision to not commit to the task forces recommendations and to instead rely on health experts to decide when its best to reopen the state.
In order for Ivey to allow businesses to resume normal functions, she said that testing throughout Alabama will need to drastically increase.
“We’re not testing enough yet,” she said. “We’re a little bit less than 1% of our population, and we need to do a whole lot more testing to get up to speed.”
The Alabama Department of Public Health data showed Tuesday night that the state has tested 48,387 people. There were 5,327 confirmed cases and 144 confirmed deaths.
Along with that, the number of cases will need to trend down for at least 10-14 days before businesses could start to reopen.
“I’m as eager as anybody to get our economy back open, but again, we have to be careful and cautious in what we are doing and do it in a smart, productive way,” Ivey said. “I plead with the people of Alabama, keep doing what you are doing. Social distancing, personal hygiene and staying at home.”