CHARLOTTE, N.C. – ReOpen NC protests spread to Charlotte Friday as demonstrators continued to call for the state to loosen the restrictions aimed at stopping the coronavirus.
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Less than 200 protesters drove and marched through Uptown during the demonstration; many ignoring social distancing guidelines.
Some demonstrators want current guidelines loosened. Others wanted a complete removal of stay-at-home orders.
Gov. Roy Cooper has said he’s evaluating testing, tracing, and trends to decide whether to start reopening the economy.
“We cannot just decide we are going to shut down our local and state economy because of the pandemic,” ReOpen Meck founder Maya Pillai said.
ReOpen Meck is a grassroots subchapter of ReOpen NC that has stated local business owners were not able to conduct business “due to the harsh restrictions imposed by” state and local officials.
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“I have personally seen the devastation from an economic standpoint,” Pillai said. “It’s important that these business owners, whether they own restaurants or retail shops, that their needs and their concerns are being addressed.”
North Carolina is testing 2,500-3,000 people for the coronavirus per day. The governor's office wants to have testing for 5-7,000 people a day.
The amount of positive cases of COVID-19 in the state are still on the rise.
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