Orange County to cautiously follow state move to Phase 3 COVID-19 reopening
Orange County will follow Gov. Roy Cooper’s lead in reopening bars, movie theaters and entertainment venues at 5 p.m. Friday under Phase 3 COVID-19 restrictions.
Businesses will be allowed to serve up to 30% of their capacity or 100 people, whichever is less. Bars will be able to open outdoors only and will have to stop serving alcohol for on-site consumption at 11 p.m.
Mass gatherings will remain limited to 25 people indoors and 50 outdoors, and health officials warn that people should still wear face masks, wash their hands and stay at least 6 feet away from people who do not live in their household.
The restrictions will remain in place through 5 p.m. Oct. 23.
County health officials will be watching closely, and if people start ignoring the crowd-size limits again, the decision could be reversed, County Commissioners Chair Penny Rich said in an interview with The News & Observer.
“It’s mostly the concern of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. I think that out in the county and in Hillsborough, we don’t have that concern as much, but certainly there has been concern about mostly Chapel Hill and off-campus parties,” Rich said. “It’s calmed down a lot, which is good.”
The county kept its stricter guidelines in place last month when the state moved to Phase 2.5. Officials said they would not ease those restrictions until the county’s percentage of positive coronavirus tests dropped below 5%.
That percentage now is less than 2%, she said. On campus, the percentage of positive cases remains higher at about 4.6%, she noted, but that includes students reporting cases to their home counties instead of Orange County.
Some theaters, such as The Lumina in Southern Village, have offered outdoor movies or online streaming as an alternative. Most bars and entertainment venues have been closed since mid-March, and some have launched livestream performances and fundraisers to pay the bills.
Silverspot Cinema in Chapel Hill announced it will reopen to moviegoers on Friday.
Local music venues, such as the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro and The Kraken in rural Orange County, could have outdoor spaces that will allow them to have some business. Others, such as The Cave, Local 506 and Nightlight in Chapel Hill, have limited or no outdoor space.
Thursday’s announcement comes just days before this weekend’s popular Carrboro Music Festival, which is going virtual for 2020, with live stream performances from local venues and pre-recorded performances on YouTube.
Chapel Hill will make an announcement soon about Halloween, Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger told the Town Council Wednesday. The state also is issuing guidelines for safe Halloween activities and trick or treating, she said.
“We just want everyone to be safe,” Rich said. “The underlying message is we’ve gotten this far and we’re going to go into the winter season, the flu season, we could get a second wave, which could be just heartbreaking if we can’t open these schools.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 12:59 PM.
