By Paola Tristan Arruda|March 19, 2020 at 11:08 PM EDT - Updated March 19 at 11:40 PM
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie is urging residents to stay home if they can to prevent the possible spread of the coronavirus.
Early Thursday afternoon, the mayor announced new restrictions on group gatherings, in accordance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Effective immediately, no more than 10 people may gather for social events or other purposes.
Medical facilities, grocery stores, and educational facilities are exempt from the order.
Haynie says one reason they decided to place these new restrictions was because they received reports of large groups of teenagers gathering.
There were also organized sports teams using their fields.
“Please don’t do things that aren’t essential right now because we’ve got a chance to stay ahead of the curve on this, if that’s at all possible, and this is the way to do it,” Haynie urged.
Although some people do see the need for this proclamation, these restrictions have impacted local businesses.
Nature Adventures, a kayak and canoe tour and rental company, has had to make adjustments to how things are run.
Elizabeth Anderegg is the manager at Nature Adventures.
She says they’ve been trying to stagger out reservations, even before the mayor made the announcement.
“So many people have canceled because of the coronavirus, and it has impacted us,”Anderegg said. “We’ve also taken precautions and we felt like it was better to not put people [together] that didn’t belong together.”
Haynie says he has been talking to Charleston and North Charleston about these new restrictions and they all seem to be on the same page.
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