LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas order preventing elective surgeries during the coronavirus outbreak prohibits abortions that aren’t immediately necessary to protect the life or health of the mother, the state’s attorney general said Friday.

Arkansas’ Health Department has ordered health providers to reschedule any procedures that can be safely postponed, but has stopped short of saying whether that bans abortions. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, a Republican, said the directive, applies to “medically unnecessary” abortions.

“All medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including abortions, must be postponed until after this crisis has ended,” Rutledge said in a statement. “Those who violate the Department of Health’s directive will be met with decisive action, and my office will forcefully defend the State officials involved in keeping Arkansans safe.”

The state’s health secretary on Thursday encouraged the state’s only surgical abortion clinic to stop seeing out-of-state patients.

The number of coronavirus cases on Friday rose to at least 1,164, and the state has had 21 deaths. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.