The new order doesn’t require any businesses or schools to close; bars, nightclubs and restaurants could continue to operate if they serve seated patrons only and observe precautions including spacing, as under the previous modified Stage 3 order.

“I believe it is a crisis situation,” the governor said, calling the current pandemic “an unprecedented and dangerous time in our state’s history.”Little didn’t issue a statewide mask mandate, but urged Idahoans to wear masks to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus, and decried those defying the local mask orders that already cover roughly half of the state’s population.

“Law enforcement cannot be everywhere all the time,” he said. “That is why I maintain this comes down to personal responsibility. Please, wear a mask whenever you’re around another person who is not in your household, so we can protect lives, preserve health care access for all of us, and continue our economic rebound.”

The Idaho National Guard mobilization, for which the governor issued an executive order, calls for 100 members to be mobilized to active duty for such functions as supporting mobile testing, medical facility decontamination, COVID-19 screenings, planning and logistics support. The mobilization will last for 30 days unless renewed.

The new Stage 2 public health order takes effect at midnight, 11 hours after the governor announced it, and will remain in effect until it’s extended, rescinded, superseded or amended.

Little brought in two special guest speakers whose message appeared to profoundly move the governor along with many of those watching: Amelia Cortez, a young woman who landed in intensive care at St. Luke’s while giving birth to her baby, and who four months later still must carry an oxygen tank with her everywhere she goes; and Rachel Thain, a St. Luke’s respiratory therapist who treated Cortez.

“When I first got sick with coronavirus, I thought I was just pregnant — out of breath,” Cortez said. “But little did I know that COVID was taking over my body and my lungs were shutting down. … I did not expect to be fighting for my life for the next three weeks. The next day, I gave birth to my daughter, and I knew I had to be separated from her due to this pandemic, and inside I cried, because I was too weak to cry on the outside.”

”My OB/GYN held my daughter, and I remember saying, ‘Is that my baby?’” she recalled. “And I let out a cheer.”She experienced delirium and hallucinations, and at one point, argued strenuously for her new baby daughter to be sent home to her mom, only to find out that that already had happened, and she’d lost three days.

“I was in the ICU alone, and without my daughter, without my family,” she said. “I was connected to a machine on the wall that would breathe for me.”

“When I got out of the hospital, my mother had to bathe me, she had to dress me, she had to brush my hair, help me with my makeup. I could not walk 10 steps without feeling like I was going to collapse. And at night, it seems to get worse. … I don’t want to see any of my loved ones or anybody else out there experience what I went through.”She said, “To my peers, I really hope that you guys can really understand where I’m coming from and take this seriously, because I almost lost my life. And I am, as you can see, still dealing with the repercussions. I am not able to work, and I have to carry around an oxygen tank with me wherever I go.”

“Especially for my age group, I feel like a lot of us young adults, we like to go out with our friends, we like to go out to dinner, and we tend to get careless,” she said. “And I think we as young adults need to activate and wake up, because this thing, COVID is real, and it’s here to attack our lungs. … We need to be more careful and take more precaution.”

Thain said, “We’re seeing an influx of young patients. Some of my sickest patients have been in their 20s and 30s. … Though they might not die from COVID or COVID complications, they are experiencing symptoms months later.”

She noted Cortez was in the hospital in July. “You can have cardiac issues. … We’re finding that our very sick patients are on life support machines for two to three weeks, that’s damaging alone as it is.”“Droplet masks are proven to work, OK? This is science,” she said. “People tell me how they feel about masks, and unfortunately, feelings are not facts. The fact is, I have been a respiratory therapist for almost 18 years. Every time I enter a patient’s room that has contagious respiratory virus, I wear my droplet mask,” she said. “When that patient leaves the room, they wear their droplet mask. That is what we have always done. … This is not new science, people.”

“The difference is COVID is so contagious and so widespread that we are now asking the community to do what we have been doing for my entire health care career,” Thain said. “We’ll wear our masks to protect you. Please wear your mask to protect us.”

“Masks do work,” she added. “We are not seeing an influx of Ada County patients, OK? Where masks are being more readily worn. We are seeing an influx of patients from outlying counties. … Everybody, no matter how small your town is or where you live, we just need to do it. We are a community. We need to take care of each other.”

Idaho Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, who will join the Idaho Senate next month and who serves on the governor’s Coronavirus Financial Advisory Committee, issued a Democratic response on Friday afternoon calling Little’s moves “another Band-Aid,” saying the state needs to do more.

“The governor acknowledged in his press conference that our hospitals are weeks away from having to ration care because many people are not wearing masks and practicing physical distancing, and many state and local leaders are not taking the threat seriously or encouraging responsibility in their communities,” Wintrow said. “We implore Gov. Little and other GOP leaders to find the compassion to prioritize the lives of Idahoans over political fights.”Asked if he had a message for his fellow Idaho GOP politicians, including Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin and several legislators, who have continued to oppose masks and other measures to stem the spread of the virus, Little said, “They are all independently elected, and they do what they do and I do what I do.”

He said, “We have to make the case for how critical it is,” and said, “Frankly, I should have been doing a better job earlier by getting the Amelias and Rachels out in front of the people of Idaho. … Because what we’ve been pleading every two weeks obviously hasn’t been working as well as we’d like to see it.”Idaho Press reporter Thomas Plank contributed.