What does Governor Mills' "Stay healthy at home" order mean in your every day life

Stay healthy at home.

Governor Mills' executive order to Mainers takes effect at midnight.

What does this mean for individuals and families at home?

Governor Mills' order requires that we stay at home unless it's leave for an essential job or an essential activity.

According to the state website, essential personal activities include the following:

1. Obtaining necessary supplies for household consumption or use. This means groceries and other items you need to maintain your home.

2. You can also go out for medication or medical supplies, medical or behavioral health or emergency services.

3. Providing care, including transportation for yourself, a family member a pet or a friend is okay.

4. Along with going to a school for meals or instructional materials.

5. You can go outside for walking, hiking, running, or biking, but you have to keep your social distance.

6. If you're required by a law enforcement officer or court order to go to a government building, you can do that.

Public transportation is not allowed unless it's for an essential reason or job. And the number of people in a private vehicles is also limited to those in the immediate household unless it's for essential personal activities.

I spoke with Bangor City Council Chair, Clare Davitt Wednesday about what this order means, specifically in our area, she says they themselves don't have all the answers yet.

She says, "We want to get the right information out to people as soon as we understand it and can be clear around it. We don't want to give more confusion and more misinformation because that's so easy right now and we've seen that with all of the other different orders that it's very hard to be clear about what's what and how it's going to work. So, the more we understand before we put out guidelines the better for everybody."

One of the important elements with this order is enforcement.

There are still questions about how that happens.

The governor say violations would be considered a crime subject to up to six months in jail and a $1000 fine.

For more information about what is and what isn't allowed under the order, visit maine.gov