Ungrammatical Imperative

When agents of the Government enjoin me to 'stay home!' my immediate reaction is to regret the absence of a preposition. When people use language so ineptly I hesitate to trust anything they say.

'stay!' without a preposition refers to a state of affairs, as in 'stay awake!' 'stay dry'. Without a preposition one can't tell whether one is supposed to stay away from home or stay at home.