JUST IN: Williamson County extends 'Stay Home Stay Safe' order through April 30

Williamson County Judge Bill  Gravell  is extending the "Stay Home Stay Safe" order  until 11:59 p.m. April 30, according to an April 7 news release.

The decision to extend the order was made following President Donald Trump and Gov. Gregg Abbott’s move to extend their executive orders last week, the release said. The previous order was to end April 13.

“Challenging times call for us to make hard decisions, but these have been made with the priority to keep our community as safe as possible, especially those who are part of the vulnerable population,” Gravell said in the release.

With the extension of the order in place, the goal is to prevent exceeding hospital capacity and to avoid overwhelming the health care system, which is currently working around the clock to tend to those who have been impacted by coronavirus, it said.

After receiving guidance from the Williamson County and Cities Health District and following The University of Texas at Austin model on social distancing, the county said it believes it is crucial that interaction continue to be limited by up to 90% in order to flatten the curve and reduce the spread of the virus, the release said.

“The UT model shows that approximately 100,000 people in Williamson County could end up contracting COVID-19. Of those, they predict 5,000 will be hospitalized with nearly 800 in intensive care and hundreds dying. The only way to prevent this is to be vigilant in our efforts at social distancing and staying home,” Gravell said.