STATEWIDE — Stay-at-home orders for Orange and Osceola counties began late Thursday night to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
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The two-week orders mandate everyone stay home as much as possible, unless you are considered an essential worker, which includes doctors, grocery store workers and bank tellers.
Charter Communications has temporarily opened its live stream free to the public. You can watch Spectrum News via our live stream on your desktop or laptop without a subscription by visiting our website and clicking “Watch Live” in the upper right. Charter also is temporarily offering free broadband and wifi access for 60 days to families with K-12 or college students. To enroll, call 1-844-488-8395. The company also will open more than half a million wifi hotspots across the country.
See the orders for the two counts:
Restaurants can still do takeout and delivery. People are encouraged to maintain social distance and keep their hands clean.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer says, it is safer with the stay-at-home orders.
“We have to flatten the curve because if we don’t, we’re going to get other people sick. We’re going to overwhelm our hospitals and our healthcare system. The nurses and the doctors will get sick. And if we don’t, we won’t have enough protective equipment for our first responders and for our healthcare professionals,” he said.
Going against this order could mean up to a $500 fine or jail time.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina has said this is not about making more arrests; it is about making sure people stay home.