With the Coronavirus continuing to spread throughout the United States, many states have taken drastic action to protect the health and safety of its citizens. This includes the closure of all non-essential businesses, the closure of schools, curfews, the requirement to wear masks when going to a grocery store, and more.

However, the most important action taken by many U.S. states was to enact a stay-at-home order.

A stay-at-home order would say that, essentially, you must stay home and cannot leave your house for anything non-essential, such as going to a friend’s house, a party, or the mall. You can leave your house if you want to exercise safely outside your home, like taking your dog for a walk or going on a run. You can also leave your house to go to the grocery store or to pick up food you have ordered from a restaurant as restaurants are currently doing delivery, curbside pick-up, or carryout only.

Since the Coronavirus pandemic started, a stay-at-home order has been issued for 45 U.S. states in the country, all following generally the same guidelines.

However, only five U.S. states have not enacted a stay-at-home order for its citizens. Those states are North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Arkansas.

The governors of these five states have given many different reasons for why they haven’t enacted a stay-at-home order yet. The reasons range from political all the way up to economic. It’s mainly economic reasons as many governors have been attempting to “reopen” their states so they can continue to be economically prosperous.

While wanting to keep your state open so it can survive economically is okay and understandable, in these times it seems unnecessary. Keeping your state open can endanger the lives of the citizens living inside of it as the virus can spread easily without anything stopping.

A stay-at-home order needs to be placed in these five states so we can combat this virus and slowly, but surely, return to normalcy in the United States.