Beaufort County extends COVID-19 state of emergency. What that means
Beaufort County will be under a state of emergency for at least another month.
Monday night, Beaufort County once again voted to extend its state of public health emergency, this time through Oct. 9.
In mid-March, all local governments in Beaufort County signed emergency declarations in response to the coronavirus pandemic — allowing them to apply for federal reimbursement and shrinking the bureaucracy by giving leaders the authority to make unilateral decisions regarding town and county operations.
The county’s state of emergency allows for government leaders to meet virtually and gives County Administrator Ashley Jacobs the power to implement an emergency operations plan in response to the virus without council approval.
The extension of the state of emergency does not directly affect the county’s mandatory mask requirements, which are set to expire on Aug. 31.
The state of emergency actually expired on Aug. 10 and county leaders were forced to call a special meeting Monday to retroactively extend it through early October.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Beaufort County has shuttered its government offices on two separate occasions. In mid-July, the county announced it would be closing its offices due to the “rising rate” of COVID-19 infections across Beaufort County and among county staff.
