Gov. Ivey issues stay at home order

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Beginning Saturday at 5 p.m., Alabama residents are being asked to stay at home except for "essential activities such as buying food and medicine."

Alabama is one of just a handful of states not currently under a shelter in place order, an issue Governor Kay Ivey has been widely criticized for. Earlier this week Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is leading the federal government response to the pandemic, said all states should have shelter-in-place orders. This week Senator Doug Jones called for the state to issue a shelter in place directive.

Earlier statewide emergency health orders closed Alabama public schools for the remainder of the year and moved learning strictly to online platforms. Those orders also closed non-essential businesses and prohibited public gatherings of 10 or more.

Read the full order issued on Friday here: https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/legal/orders.html

On Friday the Alabama Department of Public Health Friday reported that 21 people have been confirmed to have died from COVID-19, while there have been 34 deaths total reported. Nearly 8,400 have been tested for the virus, according to the ADPH. The state is nearing 1,000 positive cases of the virus.