Indoor meals can reopen in Michigan from Monday, February 1, but recharging has strict restrictions.
The pubs and restaurants are due to close at 10pm the next hour and are limited to 25% or 100 people – the lesser of the two, government Gretchen Whitmer announced at a news conference on Friday 22 January.
Michigan restaurants are allowed to open in summer and fall with 50% capacity and have no curfew. Indoor dining has been closed in Michigan since Nov. 18.
The revised health order takes effect on 1 February and lasts until 21 February. Some activities need to remain closed, including nightclubs, water parks and contact sports, the state announced.
Other states have similar curfew rules in hopes of reducing the rallies. Ohio has had a curfew at restaurants since November.
While the ban on food will end, state leaders continue to encourage pick-up, drop-off or off-meal meals. Doctors and scientists continue to reiterate that meeting without a mask is one of the easiest ways to spread COVID-19, said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, medical chief of Michigan, said.
“Just because something is open does not mean it is 100% safe or that you have to do it,” Khaldun said. “The safest thing to do is not eat inside a restaurant.”
Groups such as the elderly or people with medical conditions especially need to think twice before eating in a restaurant, Khaldun said.
A look at the updated health order for Michigan from February 1st.
Restaurant groups in Michigan feel bitterly sweet about the news – stay for the reopening, but worried about the restrictions.
“The reopening with a 25% capacity is a start, but it’s not what we’ve been hoping for or what our industry currently needs,” Scott Ellis, executive director of the Michigan Licensed Liquor Association, said in a news release. said. ‘Many businesses were closed because sales were not enough to keep them open. We are afraid that a strict capacity constraint will continue to hold these places. ‘
A recent survey by the MLBA shows that only two-thirds of pubs and restaurants will be willing to reopen if capacity limits are set at 25%. As long as customers have social distance, Ellis said businesses should be allowed to have more people.
“One-time restrictions like these simply do not make sense,” Ellis said. “A breakfast eater does not have a problem following night time, but a luxury eatery in downtown Detroit, because people usually do not visit the places later in the evening.”
Friday’s announcement is “overdue news,” said Justin Winslow, president and CEO of Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association, in a news release.
The MRLA wants clear statistics to show when restaurants with higher capacity can open. Winslow also advocates that hospitality workers move up the vaccination line.
Over the past few months, state leaders have focused on three criteria when deciding what to open – COVID-19 numbers, hospitalizations and the percentage of tests that return positive.
All three have dropped by more than half since the start of the meal ban.
Since November 18, the seven-day average of cases per day has dropped from 6,900 per day to 1,900 per day. COVID-19-related hospitalizations dropped from about 3,800 to less than 1,900. And the percentage positive rate dropped from about 13.5% to less than 5%.
When the ban on eating began, there were 65 active outbreaks linked to pubs and restaurants. As of this week, there have been seven active outbreaks linked to such facilities.
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