A statewide lockdown would be unnecessary, unenforceable, relatively ineffective and economically harmful, Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday — though he might order one anyway, just not now.

"Things are ever changing. Things are evolving," Reeves said during a video Q&A on his Facebook page. "I’m not ruling anything out."

As states across the nation ramp up restrictions to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Reeves told Mississippians he wants them to stay at home if they can, wash their hands and practice social distancing.

Reeves did not announce any new executive orders or legal actions, in part because he said Mississippians can be trusted to make responsible decisions.

"Mississippians step up and do what's right in challenging times," Reeves said.

States that have ordered residents to stay home, such as New York, have much higher infection rates than Mississippi, Reeves pointed out. Mississippi has seen a rapid increase in the number of residents testing positive for coronavirus in recent days. As of Monday morning, the number hit 249. However, New York has more than 20,000.

“No one at the state Department of Health has recommended that we have a statewide shutdown or a shelter in place,” Reeves said. "... We're not going to make a rash decision simply because other states decide to do things."

Just before hosting the Q&A, Reeves said he was on a call with Vice President Mike Pence and a federal coronavirus task force. Reeves said they did not recommend Mississippi enter a lockdown.

A post announcing the Q&A quickly garnered more than a thousand comments, many asking about a potential statewide lockdown. Reeves said he has heard from just as many Mississippians who oppose going into lockdown, including one mother who was afraid she would lose her job and be unable to feed her family if Reeves ordered residents to stay home.

One Facebook user named Eric asked why Mississippi didn't follow China's lead in adopting a strict lockdown. The new coronavirus originated in China, but the country has reported no new cases in recent days.

Reeves said he doesn't trust China's reporting and appeared to compare China to North Korea.

“Well, Eric, I will tell you, Mississippi’s never going to be China. Mississippi’s never going to be North Korea," Reeves said. "When looking at the numbers that China’s putting out claiming that they have no new cases over a period of time, I’m not entirely sure that we can trust that data.”

What would a lockdown mean?

A statewide lockdown or shelter-in-place order seemed otherworldly just weeks ago, but the spread of the coronavirus has quickly created a new reality for America, which had more than 35,000 confirmed cases and 471 deaths as of Monday morning.

About a quarter of Americans are currently under a shelter-in-place order, according to the news site Axios, though only one of Mississippi's neighbors — Louisiana — has issued such an order.

These orders exempt essential businesses, generally meaning grocery stores, pharmacies and banks. Reeves said he is asking residents to stay at home if they can, but he is not ordering it. He said that states that have ordered residents to stay home have no mechanism to enforce this.

Some states — including Tennessee — have closed gyms and limited all bars and restaurants to takeout, delivery or drive-thru only. The Mississippi Department of Health made that recommendation Friday, but Reeves has not issued such an order.

“Many other states have closed them. I am reluctant to do so," Reeves said last week. "That is not an action that I will take lightly. I don’t like government telling private business what they can and cannot do, but we are looking at it.”

Sen. Joel Carter, R-Gulfport, tweeted on Saturday that he had just received a text from Reeves that said the governor "has no intention of shutting down the Coast at this time. Nor anywhere else."

In the meantime, a patchwork of regulations has been popping up across the state.

What are cities doing?

Limits on crowd sizes and restaurants, curfews, stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders have been imposed by cities across the state, including Jackson, Vicksburg, Oxford and others.

Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton, whose city is under a stay-at-home order, said he respects Reeves and knows firsthand how difficult it is to make decisions in this time of crisis.

“It’s extremely difficult because you're trying to find a balance between the absolute basics of our society — capitalism, public safety, the freedoms that we enjoy as a society — and balance all that with the fact that we have a deadly virus with no treatment that is sweeping the world,” Shelton said. "... To me, saving lives has to come first."

These are decisions that every elected official from the local level to the president must grapple with, Shelton said. He stressed that he is not a doctor or a medical professional, but Shelton said doctors and medical professionals have told him that a shelter-in-place order is what's needed to stop the virus.

"If it's an emergency — which it is — we have to all treat it like an emergency," Shelton said, adding later, "It's a burden we all share. We're all in this together."

Here's what some cities are doing:

Is a shelter-in-place order effective?

CovidActNow.org is a website designed by data scientists and engineers that uses publicly available information about the spread of the virus and hospital preparedness to model how individual states could be affected.

The site predicts that social distancing alone is not enough to stop hospitals from being overrun. Shelter-in-place orders may prevent the overload, the site says, as well as much more severe restrictions, such as those put in place in China.

For each state, the website offers a "point of no-return" — the dates at which drastic intervention must take place to avoid hospitals from being overloaded with patients.

Many states, including New York and Louisiana, have already crossed that date, according to the site's modeling.

The site predicts Mississippi must issue a shelter-in-place order for three months sometime between Wednesday and next Monday to prevent Mississippi hospitals from being overwhelmed.

To make this prediction, the site draws on public information from the Kaiser Family Foundation about the number of hospital beds in each state. According to Kaiser, Mississippi has about four hospital beds for every thousand residents, which is one of the highest rates in the country. However, Kaiser also reported this week that more than half of Mississippi counties do not have a single ICU bed — a statistic that is also true of America overall.

Governor using Facebook

Reeves, who is still under a self-quarantine following a trip to Spain, has increasingly turned to Facebook to post video updates about the virus and to interact with Mississippians and business leaders. His Monday Q&A comes a day after he posted a live video in which he prayed and read verses from the bible.

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this day," Reeves said. "... We have challenges, Dear Lord, in this country. We have challenges across the globe, but we know that you are looking over us, and we know that your people are going to step up and make a difference in this fight."

The post drew praise from many, thanking him for his faith and compassion, but others asked for more concrete action. His post announcing the Monday Q&A was flooded with comments about a possible lockdown.

One woman who identified herself as a small business owner asked: "Do you plan on ordering a shelter in place. Obviously you have seen via social media and TV outlets that people are still going out in groups."

"Louisiana has put a stay at home ordinance in place. Time for MS to do the same. We will never get any better without it," a woman wrote.

"What will it take for you to issue a shelter in place for Mississippi. People are not following the guidelines imposed so far so why not issue something state wide," another woman wrote.

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