Gov. Tate Reeves has issued a statewide shelter-in-place order beginning Friday to fight the spread of the coronavirus, a decision that came as Mississippi surpassed 1,000 cases and posted its largest one-day increase since the crisis began.

"We believe this is the right tool, at the right time, to save lives," Reeves said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference. He said the goal of the order is "to prevent our health care system from being overwhelmed."

The order will last from Friday at 5 p.m. to April 20 at 8 a.m. Like many other states that have issued such lockdowns, it says residents must stay home except for essential activities such as shopping for groceries, caring for someone, or working for one of a limited number of businesses allowed to be open during the crisis. Individual outdoor exercise is also allowed.

The order reiterates gatherings of more than 10 people are banned, while restaurants and bars must offer drive-thru, curbside or delivery service. It says evictions are suspended, though people are still required to make rent and mortgage payments.

"This will not be easy for anyone, but we believe it is the right course of action," Reeves said. "We know that there are many people who are scared, wondering what this means for their wages and their ability to put food on the table. We are here for you and working hard to help. Mississippi will not allow you to fall without a hand to help you back up."

'Worrisome' increase in cases at nursing homes

The decision to issue the order appeared to come together earlier Wednesday. Sources in the governor's office had said it was a fluid situation still under discussion in the morning. A central factor in the decision process, they said, was slowing the spread of infection to avoid overwhelming hospital resources including intensive-care units and ventilators with a sudden influx of patients in the coming weeks.

On Wednesday, Mississippi reported 1,073 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 22 deaths. Health officials tallied 136 new cases since Tuesday, marking the largest one-day increase since the first positive was reported March 11.

Unlike a majority of state governors Reeves had resisted issuing a statewide stay-at-home order. He's instead took a piecemeal approach that targeted, investigated and isolated specific clusters of coronavirus cases, while allowing local governments to issue stricter guidelines.

Mississippi coronavirus: Reeves orders shelter-in-place for Lauderdale County

But his stance against a statewide order shifted late Tuesday, he said, as more data came in and as several state health experts advised him a more broad order was necessary to slow the spread of the virus. "They told me we are now at the point in Mississippi’s cycle where such drastic measures may be required," he said. "Today is the day."

State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said among the most "worrisome" developments was a growth of cases in nursing homes. Officials did not say how many nursing homes have been affected.

"We're seeing at this point enough volume of cases where it's starting to infiltrate into a more vulnerable population," he said. "If we think about what the purpose of a shelter in place order is, it's to slow things down, to give the system an opportunity to get extra capacity to deal with increased demand."

The state, he said, has had enough intensive-care beds and ventilators to deal with the crisis thus far. "But we know more cases are coming. We know that we're going to have more deaths. We really are still at the front of this thing. If we can use this tool to slow things down, so we can process patients through the system safely ... that's what we're doing."

Order requires many businesses and recreation areas to close

As of Wednesday, at least 35 states had urged their residents to stay inside. The orders generally look like Mississippi's, requiring people to stay in their homes unless they need to conduct essential activities such as buying food, seeking medical treatment, or getting exercise outside.

Mississippi was also among a handful of states that had not closed all non-essential businesses until Wednesday's order. Reeves indicated he did not want to rush into an order, and leave it place potentially for many weeks or months, saying it would be "impossible" to enforce over the long-term.

"If you will comply, if you will do your part, we'll be able slow the spread," he said. "We'll have better data, and hopefully, we'll be able to remove this (order) as scheduled, as planned."

Reeves urged residents not to rush out to stores and hoard groceries. He asked that people shop for the next week to 10 days and avoid stockpiling certain items.

Key details within the order include:

When people leave their homes for essential reasons or exercise, they should maintain a distance with others of six feet and maintain "aggressive hygiene" strategies, including frequent hand washing and hand sanitizer use.

Businesses deemed nonessential must stop operating, though they can maintain certain staff for purposes such as security, maintaining equipment and carrying out payroll.

Residents may travel to schools and colleges to pick up materials for remote learning.

Health care operations such as hospitals and clinics will stay open, but gyms, dance studios, salons, barber shops and other personal care and grooming facilities must close. For instance, people can still go to medical appointments or the pharmacy.

Restaurants and bars can stay open, but only offering drive-thru, curbside or delivery services.

All outdoor recreation areas where people gather will be closed, including playgrounds, beaches and lakes. Walking trails will still be open to allow for exercise.

People who feel unsafe at home, for example due to domestic violence, should seek assistance from law enforcement in order to find a separate and secure place to stay.

Dobbs said the stay-at-home order was a "defensive" strategy against the virus, but state health officials were continuing to deploy "offensive" techniques as well. Those include deploying nine epidemiology teams around the state to track cases, as well as adding drive thru testing sites.

"We continue to believe the more tests we do, the more likely our offensive strategy is about to work," Reeves said.

Reeves stressed many of the state's outbreaks appear to be coming from gatherings such as funerals, weddings and church services. These gatherings, if they involve more than 10 people, "should not happen," he said, including on Easter Sunday on April 12.

"For the safety of yourselves for the safety of your loved ones, for the safety of all Mississippians, I have to ask you not to gather in groups of 10 or more, even if that is on Easter Sunday," he said.

MEMA: More supplies coming

Greg Michel, executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said there have been delays getting supplies for medical workers, hospitals and clinics. He stressed that supplies are coming, but demand is currently outpacing the supply.

“We know a lot of hospitals are operating in their emergency stash … We are actually probably four days later than I would have would like to have been on getting the supplies in," Michel said, blaming logistical issues.

The federal government has delivered three small shipments of supplies to Mississippi so far, he said, and the state has been aggressive on getting supplies itself.

Michel said masks and two truckloads of hand sanitizer arrived on Wednesday. The Mississippi Department of Health has been making regular shipments of supplies to health care facilities, though they are smaller than what

Reeves receives increasing pressure from health care, political leaders

Reeves had faced mounting pressure in recent days to issue a statewide order to help "flatten the curve" of infections.

When asked if Reeves forestalled the statewide lockdown order because of political concerns, Reeves said the opposite was true.

“If I was going to make the politically easy decision, I would have entered an order such as this weeks and weeks ago. That was an easy decision politically because there were lots of people calling on lots of different political leaders to make that decision," Reeves said. "For me the decision has always been data driven and based on the advice of the experts.”

Shortly after the shelter-in-place order was announced, two business groups — the Mississippi Economic Council and the Mississippi Manufacturing Association — issued a joint press release in support of the order.

On Wednesday, the Mississippi Academy of Family Physicians sent letters to Reeves and Dobbs imploring them to issue a stay-at-home order "much like our neighboring state of Tennessee just executed." The group said such an order would mean "fewer infections and fewer deaths."

The physicians also requested the state's help in acquiring more personal protective equipment such as masks for physicians across the state. They said many doctors did not have the support of a hospital system providing equipment, and they are failing to track down the necessary protection. "This is of great risk to doctors, staff, and patients," the group wrote.

Reeves also received a letter from a group of Coast state senators Tuesday, who urged him to "immediately" order all beaches closed to prevent the spread of coronavirus. In addition, the senators expressed concern about shortages of protective equipment at local hospitals. They said local residents were "alarmed by the steadily increasing numbers of positive cases" and their proximity to major outbreaks in Louisiana.

On Wednesday morning — as first reported by Mississippi Today — sources confirmed Reeves received an email from LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, expressing concern about the availability of hospital resources and the need for a shelter-in-place order.

A day earlier, Reeves appeared firmly committed to a county-by-county approach, attempting to snuff out hotspots of the virus. He ordered a shelter-in-place in Lauderdale County in eastern Mississippi, where coronavirus cases have spiked as officials try to control an outbreak at a nursing home. And he hinted at a press conference that this was just the first of several county or regional lockdown orders to come.

Sources in the governor's office said Wednesday morning they were still considering placing several additional counties under shelter-in-place orders before the entire state. But that thinking had changed by the afternoon, as Reeves issued the statewide lockdown mandate.

Officials have said they are concerned about several counties along the Coast — which is near the large outbreak in New Orleans — as well as DeSoto County, outside Memphis, which has the second-most confirmed cases in the state after Hinds County.

Outside of Reeves' order for Lauderdale County, several of the state's major cities already ordered residents to stay home. They include Oxford and Tupelo, whose mayor, Jason Shelton, has been critical of the governor's patchwork approach. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba also issued a stay-at-home order Wednesday afternoon, just before Reeves issued his own.

Other top state officials said Reeves was making the correct decision. House Speaker Philip Gunn said he spoke with both Dobbs and Woodward on Wednesday morning. He said he asked them what the best next step would be, if they could set aside economic and political influences. He said both underscored a shelter-in-place order was the next step.

"That was convincing to me," said Gunn, who added he then called Reeves and urged him to move forward with the order. "We do not want to be in a situation where we have not done everything we can possibly do."

"We need to heed and support Gov. Reeves’ executive order to shelter-in-place until April 20," Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann added in a statement. "We need to work together to take care of our most vulnerable citizens by listening to our health care professionals and traveling outside of our homes only when necessary."

Contact Giacomo "Jack" Bologna at 601-961-7282 or gbologna@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @gbolognaCL.