Can you be arrested for ignoring shelter-in-place orders? What can and can’t you do?

The coronavirus outbreak has prompted a growing number of communities to consider everything from curfews to shelter-in-place orders to stop the virus from spreading.

What exactly is shelter in place?

It’s essentially a travel restriction that applies to what Americans do outside the confines of their property. Shelter in place is not anything close to house arrest, however.

You can leave your home. It just needs to be for a very good reason, or you will be treated as “an imminent threat to public health,” according to a shelter-in-place order issued this week by San Mateo County in California.

The punishment depends on the community, but an order adopted this week in San Francisco city and county calls for a “misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.”

Legally mandatory shelter-in-place orders issued this week in California use the phrase “essential activities” to define the excuses people have for going out, and those can vary from place to place.

Among the possibilities is preventing you from going to work, if the community deems the job does not serve “essential businesses and government services.”

“The order restricts travel to essential activities, activities necessary for the health and safety for individuals and their families,” explained a Q&A released Monday by Santa Clara County Public Health in California.

“This means you and those you live with should remain at home. You are allowed to leave your home for specified reasons to make sure you have the necessities of life. ... The intent of this order is to ensure that people remain in their residences and minimize social interactions.”

In other words, if it’s not “urgent,” you’re in violation of the order, the county says.

More than a half-dozen communities in the San Francisco Bay Area issued three-week shelter-in-place orders, and they have a broad number of exemptions. This includes letting people pick up orders of takeout food.

Among the exemptions in that order:

• You can leave home for tasks “essential to health and safety” for you or others in the household, including getting medicine and going to the doctor.
• You can go buy groceries.
• You can “engage in outdoor activity,” like walking, hiking or running, but should not gather in groups or socialize during such activities.
• You can leave to care for a family member or pet in another household.

San Mateo County, California, also issued a list of things you cannot do, including:

• “Engage in group activities in person with others.”
• Have dinner parties or just invite friends over “to hang out.”
• Get your nails done at a salon or go to a stylist or barber.
• Shop for non-essentials
• Use buses, your car or a motorbike to “take unnecessary trips.”
• Have a wedding ceremony
• Go to church or any other place of worship

This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 12:20 PM with the headline "Can you be arrested for ignoring shelter-in-place orders? What can and can’t you do?."