Local leaders made their wishes clear to Spokane County residents Tuesday morning: stay home, support local businesses responsibly and don’t panic.

Spokane County has 33 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and Spokane County Health Officer Dr. Bob Lutz ancitipates this number will continue to climb. At a news confernece Monday morning, he urged Spokane residents to heed Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-home order issued Monday night, emphasizing that this means no gatherings of any size. People still are free to go on walks, to the park and to essential businesses, as long as social distancing is maintained. Restaurants can remain open if they have takeout or delivery options available.

Washington joined several other states this week with its stay-home order, the most stringent of the efforts taken by political leaders and public health officials in the United States to attempt to slow the spread of the respiratory virus.

“If I were to look right now at our local numbers, we are not flattening the curve,” Lutz said. “And if you look at a state level, we are not flattening the curve yet, so we’ve incrementally had to incresase what we call non-pharmaceutical interventions to the point where we are right now.”

Of the 33 cases of COVID-19 in Spokane County, five people are hospitalized with the illness, Kelli Hawkins, Spokane Regional Health District spokeswoman said.

It could take a week, two weeks or even a month to see the results of such interventions, like social distancing, working from home and the closure of certain businesses and gatherings, Lutz said.

“Having to go to this next step indicates that collectively we have not really followed through with what public health has been providing for recommendations,” he said.

The responsibility for flattening the curve relies heavily on the community to comply with the recommendations. Local law enforcement agencies say they will educate people and expect the community to voluntarily comply with the governor’s order.

“We are not going to take efforts that are going to be draconian on this, folks,” Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said. “We’re going to educate you.”

The sheriff emphasized that there driving restrictions, noting that people are still allowed to shop for essentials at grocery stores or pharmacies.

“We are not out there like a hall monitor looking for passes. That’s not going to happen,” Knezovich said. “If we see you gathering in large groups, we will ask you not to do so.”

As for businesses not complying with the governor’s order, Knezovich said law enforcement agencies are discussing actions they could take, including issuing fines and pulling business licenses.

“Those are all options on the table, but we don’t want to get there,” he said.

Knezovich and Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward encouraged the community to stop panic shopping in order ensure that stores have the necessary time to stock up their supplies.

All non-essential businesses are to close (if they haven’t already) on Wednesday under Inslee’s order, although Woodward emphasized that volunteers for food programs, like Meals on Wheels, are considered essential during this time.

Shelters for people experiencing homelessness will have to comply with social distancing requirements, cutting providers’ capacity. Woodward said the first floor of the downtown Spokane Public Library will be used as a new shelter space and will open with up to 140 beds as soon as next week. The city also is assessing other spaces to provide community members a space to isolate or quarantine if they cannot do so in their own homes.

All of the Spokane area leaders at the news confernece urged residents to take the stay-home order and recommendations seriously in the coming weeks.

“My concern is that unless we really start to ratchet this up in a significant way, we will be one of those countries that doesn’t have a slow flattening of the curve, and we will be doing this for a while,” Lutz said.