A North Carolina official admitted she will be traveling to see family for the holidays just minutes after urging residents to remain ...
A North Carolina official admitted she will be traveling to see family for the holidays just minutes after urging residents to remain at home for Christmas and the New Year.
Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio revealed during a press conference on Monday that she will be 'traveling by car to Durham, North Carolina to see some close family' while she delivered updates on the outbreak in the area.
Yet she had started out the virtual briefing by stating that this 'holiday season we ask that you stay home and only see those that you live with' as she warned that the virus is 'very widespread' in the community and that gatherings are 'some of the most dangerous places to be'.
Diorio has become the latest in a line of elected officials and health experts who have been found breaking their own COVID-19 restrictions, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx.
Mecklenburg County Manager Dena Diorio revealed during a press conference on Monday that she will be traveling for the holidays just after urging residents not to do so
Diorio was blasted as a hypocrite after she revealed she was not sticking to the guidance
After revealing her plans, Diorio was pushed by reporters to explain why she had advised the county's residents to stay at home when she was not planning to do the same.
Diorio defended her actions, however, and claimed that she felt 'comfortable' the people she is meeting with are taking precautions.
'I know who the family is, I know where they spend their time, so I feel comfortable making that trip,' she said.
'It's two people in a household, it's not a group. It's a very small number of people and I feel very confident about their safety.
'If I did not feel comfortable, I would not go,' Diorio continued, before being pushed further by questions on whether the county's residents should also be able to decide to travel if they deem it safe.
'I'm making a personal decision based on information that I have, and so that's the decision that I've made, and I think everybody needs to do the same,' Diorio said.
Yet she was followed by Public Health Director Gibbie Harris who told residents that she wanted to 'stay consistent with my message'.
Harris had said that she was planning to spend the holidays only with her immediate family.
Diorio defended her actions and claimed that she felt 'comfortable' the people she is meeting with are taking precautions
'We are urging people in all settings to avoid gatherings,' she said.
'We have seen a number of situations across the state where Christmas gatherings in churches have resulted in a large number of cases. We haven't specially seen outbreaks like that in this community at this time but as we move into this week, a sacred week for many, the hope is to be with your faith community to spend time with them.
'My hope is that most, if not all, will do it virtually and if they do get together, they do it in very small groups, socially distanced, masking, in clean settings maybe outside.
'It is a challenge, I know, at this time of year to ask that of our community but it's what is going to get us through this month.'
On Tuesday, it was revealed that at least 100 COVID-19 cases have been traced back to a church in a small town in another part of North Carolina.
Diorio's travel plans were not well received and she was slammed on social media for appearing hypocritical in not following her own advice.
'Another government hypocrite manipulating their own COVID rules,' said Twitter user @HunterSmiley.
'Am still looking for the emergence of leaders who are capable of making bold decisions that show, rather than tell people how to do what needs to be done to curb this pandemic,' added @franciscanist.
'If there was ever more evidence that the orders & mandates are a joke,' wrote @F3_Madison.
Diorio's travel plans were not well received and she was slammed on social media for appearing hypocritical in not following her own advice, as pictured above
Diorio's travel admission on Monday came just a day after the Associated Press reported that Dr. Birx had traveled out of state for Thanksgiving, despite her insistence that Americans should remain at home for the holidays.
She traveled the day after the holiday to a vacation property accompanied by family members from two households.
These included herself and her husband, a daughter, son-in-law, and two young grandchildren.
Birx said she had gone to the Delaware home to winterize the property ahead of its potential sale and said everyone on the trip belonged to her 'immediate household,' spread across two homes.
On Tuesday, she revealed that she plans to soon retire, suggesting that recent media coverage had unfairly dragged her family into the spotlight.
She told Newsy: 'This experience has been a bit overwhelming. It's been very difficult on my family.
'I think what was done in the last week to my family, you know, they didn't choose this for me. They've tried to be supportive, but to drag my family into this.'
And just last month Gov. Newsom was also caught out after he was pictured enjoying an indoor meal with a group of unmasked people at a Bay Area Michelin star restaurant, despite California's spiking cases and his own insistence that residents need to be cautious.
Newsom said he made a 'bad mistake' by attending a friend's birthday dinner on November 6 at the ritzy French Laundry restaurant in Napa County.
The governor is currently quarantining after one of his staffers tested positive for COVID-19.
Cases throughout North Carolina are climbing. At least 3,043 people in the state are hospitalized with the virus - a new record - as the positive test rate rose to 10.7 percent
Diorio's revelation also came as Mecklenburg County's test positivity rate reached 12.1 percent with 298 hospitalized with COVID-19.
'Our case counts are up. They have not dipped below 500 per day since early December,' Harris said adding that the increase in demand for tests is 'incredibly concerning'.
'I think it could indicate risky behavior over the next several weeks as people figure out how they want to celebrate the holidays and are testing ahead of time thinking that's going to give them a pass to do whatever they want to do,' she concluded.
Cases throughout North Carolina have been climbing throughout December, although the seven-day tolling average of new daily cases has dipped in the past three days.
At least 494,511 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 6,360 have died.
There were 5,609 new cases reported on Wednesday, up from 5,255 the previous day.
December is now the state's deadliest month of the pandemic with 69 new fatalities reported on Wednesday.
At least 3,043 people in the state are hospitalized with the virus - a new record - as the positive test rate rose to 10.7 percent.
Nationwide, more than 18.4million Americans have been infected with COVID-19 and 326,118 have died.
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