One senator from North Alabama called the stay in shelter order a double-edged sword, it's helping curve the spread of coronavirus but is also killing the economy and small businesses, too.

Alabama Senator Arthur Orr told WAAY31 as long as there isn't a big spike in cases over the next 10 days, it's time to start looking at rolling back some of the directives in Gov. Kay Ivey's stay at home order.

"We are really crippling our economy out here. I hear a lot about it and it will not be the same," said Orr.

WAAY31 spoke with Orr over the phone Monday where he echoed what small businesses across North Alabama are telling us, the stay in shelter order is hurting mom n pop shops the most. Orr said allowing smaller stores to open up and practice social distancing while controlling the number of people in them would help small businesses and Alabama's economy.

"It's an uneven playing field that we've created by having some retailers large big box retailers able to open but smaller mom n pop stores or other stores that are more specialty stores can't open," said Orr.

Ivey's order is slated to last until April 30th, but Orr said every scenario for getting things close to normal needs to be considered in what will be a step by step process.

"Look at it regionally. Maybe what's good for some parts of the state isn't viable for other parts," said Orr. "If we can get to first base then I'm sure we can see what measures we can take that are sound and reasonable with individuals realizing if your in one of these risk categories you've still got to take all the precautions," said Orr.

While pushing to open businesses, Orr admitted we are several months away from large gatherings. Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth is in charge of a subcommittee to introduce a gradual reopening plan to the governor by Friday.