State on track for phase 3 reopen
Beginning next month, restaurants can operate at 75% indoor capacity
Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday said that restaurants will be allowed to expand indoor capacity to 75% and larger groups will be permitted at religious services and outdoor events as Connecticut moves to its third phase of reopening on Oct. 8.
“Phase 3 is coming about because Connecticut has earned it,” Lamont said.
Asked Thursday why Connecticut would move forward with reopening even as its COVID19 metrics have ticked upward, Lamont said he was satisfied that infections were under control.
“We knew that with the colleges coming back, schools coming back you might see a little fluctuation, but it’s been pretty small,” Lamont said. “I wanted to hold off a few weeks ago. I wanted to see what the impact of schools and in particular colleges might be. Now it’s almost a month later and we have a pretty good sense of where we’re headed.”
The state’s coronavirus numbers have risen slightly in recent weeks, with the state’s positivity rate rising from 0.8% to just above 1%. Still, officials have noted, the metrics have stabilized this week and remain lower than those in nearly every other state.
In addition to increased capacity at restaurants, other planned changes as part of the coming reopening phase include:
Hair salons, barber shops and libraries will also be allowed 75% capacity, up from 50% currently.
Places of worship will be allowed up to 50% capacity indoors capped at 200 people, up from 25% capped at 100 people.
Maximum capacity at outdoor event venues such as racetracks and amphitheaters will increase from 25% to 50%.
Private outdoor gatherings will now be capped at 150 attendees, up from 100.
Lamont said these changes will be contingent on Connecticut’s coronavirus numbers remaining low over the coming weeks, though he declined to say which metrics specifically would govern reopening.
“Incredibly strict metrics can be a little complicated,” Lamont said. “We’re definitely going to be erring on the side of caution, giving people some notice, but I’m not going to have a straight 5% [threshold].”
The new phase of reopening does not include bars and nightclubs, which have remained closed throughout the pandemic. Lamont has repeatedly stressed his nervousness about bars, which have been blamed for outbreaks across the country, and said Thursday there is no timetable for their reopening.
“For me, the bars by definition are everything contrary to social distancing,” Lamont said. “We’ve seen examples in multiple states why it’s incredibly risky, especially with the colleges coming back right now. Right now does not seem to be the time.”
“It’s a huge help. It’s not quite as much as we need, but we’ll take anything we can get at this point.”
Scott Smith, vice president and chief operating officer at Max Restaurant Group
Restaurants happy with reopening
Lamont’s announcement comes as local restaurants, already struggling amid diminished business during the pandemic, face colder weather that will make outdoor dining less feasible. Currently, restaurants are allowed to serve customers at up to 50% capacity indoors and no more than their regular operating capacity outdoors.
Restaurant owners said they were pleased by the decision announced Thursday.
“I think it’s tremendous, especially given the fact that we’re soon to lose, or already starting to lose, our outdoor dining, which has helped sustain us through the summer,” said Scott Smith, vice president and chief operating officer at Max Restaurant Group. “It’s a huge help. It’s not quite as much as we need, but we’ll take anything we can get at this point.”
Smith said he hopes Lamont’s move to Phase 3 will be a “vote of confidence” for diners.
“I think it’s going to give some people that have been uneasy to come out, a little less pause, to come give us a try,” he said.
Rob Maffucci, whose restaurants include V’s Trattoria in Hartford and Vito’s Pizzaria in Wethersfield, said the reopening is “better than going in the opposite direction.”
Though he hopes the move to 75% capacity helps ease people’s fears, Maffucci said he won’t add seating beyond 50% right away at V’s.
“I still want people to feel comfortable eating inside,” he said. “Let’s get them used to eating indoors before we can add tables to the mix.”
In a statement Thursday, Scott Dolch, executive director of the Connecticut Restaurant Association, called the next phase of reopening “another important step in Connecticut’s nation-leading efforts to respond to COVID19 in a safe and responsible manner.
“Like the rest of the country, Connecticut is not out of the woods of this pandemic by any stretch, but we’ve proven that it’s possible to be mindful of our local economy at the same time we keep our residents as safe as possible,” Dolch said.
As the coronavirus pandemic has progressed, research has increasingly pointed to restaurants as sites of potential spread. One recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that adults who tested positive for COVID-19 were about twice as likely as others to have dined at a restaurant within the previous two weeks.
This effect, the CDCwrote, was likely due to poor air circulation in restaurants, as well as the difficulties of mask-wearing there.
“Masks cannot be effectively worn while eating and drinking,” the CDC noted, “whereas shopping and numerous other indoor activities do not preclude mask use.”
The third phase of Connecticut’s reopening process was originally scheduled for July and would have not only expanded indoor capacity at restaurants but also reopened bars and loosened restrictions on indoor and outdoor gatherings. Lamont delayed those measures, however, as COVID-19 cases began to increase in states that had reopened more aggressively.
Danbury, Hartford have most cases
The state on Thursday announced 157 new coronavirus cases out of 15,562 tests, for a rate of 1%. The state has now seen a positivity rate of 1.1% over the previous seven days.
Connecticut currently has 72 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, down one from Wednesday and down three from this time last week.
The state recorded two additional coronavirus-linked deaths Thursday, bringing its total during the pandemic to 4,499. The United States has now seen 202,467 COVID-19 deaths, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.
According to state numbers released Thursday, Danbury experienced 82 cases from Sept. 13-19, the most of any Connecticut town or city, followed closely by Hartford, which saw 80 cases in that time. Waterbury (62 cases), New Britain (55), Stamford (49), Bridgeport (48) and Norwich (48) were the municipalities with the next most recorded cases.
As of Thursday, the state has now conducted more than 1.5 million tests for COVID-19. After processing fewer than 60,000 tests a week as recently as mid-July, the state now typically processes between 90,000 and 110,000 tests over any sevenday period.