Both Johnson County and Cleburne issued stay at home orders on Friday morning in response to the continuing COVID-19 situation.

Section 6 of the county’s declaration orders all residents to “stay in their place of residence except as permitted by this declaration.” The county declaration lasts for seven days, unless extended by the commissioners.

Section 4 of Cleburne’s order, the Stay Safe at Home order, does the same but adds that residences include hotels, motels, shared rentals and similar facilities. The city declaration lasts until April 14.

The county allows residents to leave their homes for the following reasons:

• For medical reasons including acquiring medication and medical supplies.

• To obtain supplies needed to work from home.

• To obtain food, pet food and supplies, household consumer products and products necessary to maintain safety, sanitation and essential operations of a residence.

• To engage in outdoor activities such as walking, bicycling, hiking, running or riding provided social distancing of 6 feet is maintained.

• To care for a family member or pet in another household.

• To go to work and provide services.

The exceptions for Cleburne are the same.

The county declaration allows only essential retail  outlets to remain open. Those include:

• Food service providers including grocery stores, warehouse stores, liquor stores, bodegas, gas stations, convenience stores, home improvement stores, pet and feed stores and retail establishments that sell food products and household staples.

• Pawn shops and gun stores.

• Businesses not open to the public that ship or deliver groceries, food, goods or services directly to residents.

• Schools or other entities that typically provide free services to students or members of the public on a pick up and take-away basis only.

• Laundromats and dry cleaners.

• Businesses providing delivery, service or preparation of vehicles.

• Businesses providing products people need to work from home including mail, shipping and post office box services.

• Businesses providing supplies and/or essential repair and maintenance services for homes and businesses.

• Hotels, motels and shared rental units.

• Real estate, title, mortgage and insurance companies as well as financial institutions.

Commissioners added piercing and tattoo parlors to the list of businesses ordered closed in their earlier declaration.

Cleburne’s list of businesses allowed to remain open is the same as the county’s.

Calling for common sense

Both County Judge Roger Harmon and Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain stressed that the new orders of the county and Cleburne differ from those recently issued in Tarrant and Dallas counties and in Burleson because they better fit the needs of Johnson County and Cleburne.

“We’re different than those areas because we don’t have the higher density and concentration of people they have,” Harmon said. “We’re blessed that we got on this early and have managed to stay ahead of the curve and keep the line [of new confirmed cases] pretty flat. 

“I hope I won’t have to make any more amendments to this declaration. Today was the third amendment. But we’re watching everything closely and prepared to do what we have to do to keep everyone safe. If those numbers of new cases spike, everything’s on the table. But we’re hoping these steps and people staying home as much as possible and using common sense will be enough.”

Cain echoed the call for common sense, social distancing, frequent washing of hands and similar safety measures.

“I’d also encourage residents to see this as an opportunity to spend time with their family, get back to basics and what’s important,” Cain said. “We’ve all been operating on a frantic pace these last couple of weeks. So I encourage people to read, take a walk, decompress and try to take a break from all of this. The silver lining is maybe this is a good opportunity for all of us to remind ourselves of the things that matter most.”

Cain and Harmon urged residents to look to official city and county websites for information rather than social media sites.

“Every community has to adjust to the needs of that community,” Cain said when asked why Cleburne’s measures are less strict than those of several other cities and counties. “We’re different than Fort Worth and Burleson. Which is not to say we’re not communicating with them and sharing a ton of information. Or that we’re not monitoring the situation and ready to make changes quickly if the need arises.

“I would caution everyone to be careful and not panic when they hear about spikes in numbers in many of the Metroplex cities. Those don’t necessarily mean the virus is spreading more so much as a lot of that has to do with the backlog of test results. A lot of those are 10 days old by the time they get results. Which is to say there’s more to those numbers than what people are seeing or reading a lot of times.”

Cain added that no confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Cleburne.

“We’ve also taken the goal posts down in the park to discourage people from gathering in close quarters,” Cain said. “We don’t want to be a nanny state, but we do want to stress the importance of social distancing. If you see people not practicing that remind them gently or, if need be, contact the police.

Johnson County Emergency Management Director Jamie Moore reported that there have been two confirmed cases in the county, with a third possible case that remains pending.

“Five residents have been quarantined and actively monitored,” he said.