CAYCE, S.C. — The City of Cayce has implemented a curfew starting Wednesday night due to the coronavirus.
City council members voted unanimously on Tuesday night to have a curfew from 11 pm until 5 am.
The curfew will restrict the travel of individuals inside Cayce city limits, with the exception of those traveling to and from work, for work purposes or for healthcare.
During the hours of the curfew, residents are asked to stay in their homes and not travel freely. Any person violating any provision of the ordinance will be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, according to city officials.
The decision for the curfew comes a day after Governor Henry McMaster made the "home or work" order on Monday at the South Carolina Emergency Management Division.
"We're thankful for the governor leading everybody to stay home or to be at work if they're one of the essential businesses that are allowed to be open," said Mayor Elise Partin.
"We used a survey to ask our residents what they felt like they needed and what support they wanted from their city government and what we heard overwhelmingly from them was they wanted as much support as possible to get people to stay in place so we limit the spread, we flatten the curve," explained Mayor Partin.
The mayor says they talked with businesses in the area about the curfew and how it will impact employees getting to and from work. Some businesses have already given their employees letters saying they need to work to show to law enforcement in case they are stopped on the way to and from work.
"What we found when we reached out to those businesses, a lot of them have already given their employees those types of letters anyway, even long before this."
Some cities like the City of Columbia started their curfew a little before Governor Henry McMaster made his "home or work" order.
While most people are doing a good job of staying at home, Mayor Elise Partin says they passed the curfew to make it more safe for residence.
"What we want to encourage even more is to make sure we have folks that are making good decisions about that. Really there's not much need for most anybody to be out under those house of the curfew from 11 pm to 5 am."
Citizens are being encouraged to do their 2020 census while they are home. The city also has a list of resources so folks can support businesses while the coronvirus pandemic continues. People can find that list here.