Mayor Kate Snyder and Portland City Manager Jon Jennings announced an emergency stay-at-home order for all non-essential businesses and services in Portland as well as an order for all people living in Portland to stay at their place of residence.

The stay-at-home order is in response to the need to lessen the community spread of the global pandemic, COVID-19.

The order goes into effect at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, March 25 and is good for five days. Any extensions will have to be approved by the City Council, which is planning to hold a remote meeting on Monday, March 30.  

“With 90 of 118 confirmed cases in Southern Maine, we are obligated to take additional measures to protect public health,” said Mayor Kate Snyder. "The City Council is in support of the Manager’s action, and appreciative of this expansion of efforts that seeks to safeguard people, and alleviate the inevitable strain on our health care system.”

Here's what the Stay at Home Emergency means according to the order:

All individuals currently living within the City of Portland are ordered to stay at their place of residence. To the extent individuals are using shared or outdoor spaces, they must at all times as reasonably possible maintain social distancing of at least 6 feet from any other person with whom they don’t share a household when they are outside their residence.  All persons may leave their residences only to access COVID-19 Essential Services or as otherwise expressly provided herein. Individuals experiencing homelessness are exempt from this requirement, but are strongly urged to obtain shelter, and be at least 6 feet from any other person, to the maximum extent practicable and possible.

All travel including, but not limited to, travel on foot, bicycle, scooter, motorcycle, golf carts, automobile, or public transit, for COVID-19 Essential Services is permitted.  Outdoor exercise and/or dog walking is also specifically permitted. All individuals are encouraged to not use or congregate on City playgrounds, and it is recommend that all individuals should seek, to the maximum extent possible, to be at least six (6) feet from any other person with whom they do not share a household with when engaged in any travel or exercise activities on City streets, trails, grounds, fields, tennis or basketball courts or other outdoor areas.

Violation of or failure to comply with this Order is punishable by a fine of $500.00 per occurrence plus the costs of prosecution.  

To keep people up to date on the latest information, the City of Portland will be posting information related to COVID-19 at https://www.portlandmaine.gov/COVID19.

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