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A "stay home - work safe" order has been issued on Tuesday for the fourth largest U.S. city of Houston and Harris County where the city is located to help fight the spread of COVID-19. The order will go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday night and will last until April 3. The order was announced Tuesday morning at a joint press conference with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.
"To put simply, this means that all of us should stay home unless our jobs are essential for the health and safety of our community," Hidalgo said.
"I can say to you without reservation that Harris County Judge and I are standing together on this order. This is a public health crisis," Turner twitted.
According to the federal government's guidelines, there are 16 sectors considered essential, including public health and food.
Turner said grocery stores, health centers and parks will keep open under the order, but asking people to keep "social distance" which is about 1.8 meters.
"My destiny is in your hands. Your destiny is in my hands. Where we go from here is dependent on how we recognize the crisis we are in," said the mayor.
Houston's "stay home" order came after Dallas, another big city in the state of Texas, issued a similar shelter-in-place order that took effect Monday night at 11:59.
As of March 24, there are more than 700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections in the state of Texas.
