On Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper announced the state will continue to ease restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Executive Order 204 will start at 5 p.m. Friday, March 26, and expire on April 30. The statewide mask mandate remains in effect as does guidance on six-foot distancing in businesses. The biggest changes are an increase in capacity and the 11 p.m. curfew on alcohol consumption has been lifted.
Mass gathering limits have increased to 50 indoors and 100 outdoors.
“We are in a promising place. With North Carolina’s COVID-19 key metrics improving and vaccinations increasing, we can responsibly use our dimmer switch approach to easing restrictions guided by science and data,” said NCDHHS Secretary Mandy K. Cohen, M.D. in a press conference Tuesday.
Some venues can increase capacity to 100% including museums, aquariums, retail businesses, salons, and tattoo parlors. Capacity increases to 75% indoors and up to 100% outdoors (subject to six feet distancing) at: restaurants, breweries, recreation facilities like bowling alleys, gyms, pools and amusement parks.
Other locations can increase to 50%, such as bars, movie theatres, gaming facilities, auditoriums and other live performance venues, sports arenas and movie theaters.
“These are significant changes but they can be done safely. We’ve said all along that the science and safety will be our guide in this dimmer switch approach, and they show we can do this,” Cooper said. “I’m grateful for the efforts of people across the state, but I emphasize this: this pandemic is not over yet. We’re only able to keep this virus in check while we ease restrictions if people act responsibly and follow safety protocols. That means continuing to wear a mask and social distancing. We want to strengthen our economy while keeping people safe and it’s on all of us to keep that happening. The last thing we want is to backslide.”
Cohen re-emphasized activities and settings with lower risk include smaller groups of people, being outside, keeping face coverings on, staying physically distant and avoiding yelling, singing or cheering.
Active cases low,
vaccinations increase
The number of active cases in Swain County remains low with just 10 cases in the past 14 days and no additional deaths.
Statewide, the new cases are averaging 5.8% with 1,248 new cases reported Monday. There were 924 hospitalized with the virus Monday and deaths have totaled 11,836 statewide.
Vaccinations continue to increase steadily. Statewide, 31.75 of the population has gotten at least one dose. The state has administered more than 4.1 million doses.
Locally, there is a bit of a lag in the percent of the population at least partially vaccinated at 20.8%. There have been 2,973 first doses administered and 1,778 second doses.
Cooper and Cohen confirmed the state is confident the state will receive another increase in supply, including the one-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine, and people in vaccine Group 5 will be able to sign up for vaccinations possibly sooner than May.