Stephens County has moved to stage five of the community health plan in an effort to combat the COVID-19 virus within the community. The announcement came during a Friday, July 17 press conference and follows Gov. Greg Abbott’s recently released executive order, GA-29.

The press conference was led by Stephens County Judge Michael Roach, Breckenridge mayor Bob Sims and also features appearances from three community doctors, Cynthia Perry, William Prater, and Kelli Windsor who provided expertise on the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is not a conspiracy here locally to get the numbers up,” Stephens County Judge Michael Roach said. “We’ve talked to health care professionals who are seeing this activity in our local hospital. What we’ve said all along is what moves us from stage three to five is our regional hospital capacity.”

Moving to stage five of the community health plan, the county will enforce emergency restrictions. Stage five went into effect on Monday, July 20 at midnight and these restrictions include:

• Face coverings when inside a commercial entity or when outdoors and social distancing isn’t feasible.

• Shelter-in-place strongly recommended for all high-risk community members.

• Travel outside of Stephens County strongly discouraged.

Law enforcement leaders attended the press conference also and provided advice for citizens on obeying the rules and regulations on the stage five plan.

“What we don’t want is for these businesses that are requiring people to wear masks, for citizens to ask questions on why they don’t want to wear the mask,” Bacel Cantrell, Breckenridge Police Chief said. “Those people have a job and they are trying to do it and they are trying to stay open. We don’t want people giving them a hard time and breaching the peace. If we get a call from one of theses businesses saying some one is being unruly, then we will respond. Those will be the two biggest tools as law enforcement that we’ll use, disorderly conduct or criminal trespass.”

Local health care experts provided their knowledge on the severity of the virus and advice on protecting those in the higher risk category.

“It’s a respiratory virus and if you put on a handkerchief, bandana, or mask, and if I sneeze it won’t spray, so it protects you,” Dr. William Prater said. “It’s reverse sociology as you’ll actually protect somebody by wearing a mask. I’ve said it jokingly but it is more or less true, if you get COVID, you might as well go and see a preacher because your doctors can’t do a lot for you.”

The Breckenridge American will continue to monitor the pandemic and provide citizens with beneficial information.