Restaurants, bars and retail stores in North Carolina can take a big step closer to normalcy this weekend as Gov. Roy Cooper is once again easing restrictions on how businesses can operate.
Cooper announced Tuesday that restaurants, breweries, wineries and gyms can increase indoor capacity limits to 75% — up from 50% — and outdoor capacity to 100%. Also, bars and event venues, such as conference centers and sports arenas, will be allowed to operate at 50% of indoor and outdoor capacity, and the 11 p.m. cutoff for alcohol sales will end.
Bars, one of the hardest-hit industries under Cooper's restrictions, have been allowed to operate at 30% of indoor capacity since the end of the February.
The statewide face-mask requirement remains in place along with rules regarding social distancing in businesses and public places.
Cooper's latest executive order will go into effect at 5 p.m. Friday. The mass gathering limit, which covers other kinds of gatherings not otherwise laid out in the executive order, will be increased to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors.
"These are significant changes, but they can be done safely. We have said all along that the science and data would be our guide in this dimmer switch approach, and they show we can do this," Cooper said.
Since mid-January, North Carolina has seen its daily new cases of Covid-19 drop dramatically before leveling off in the past week. And the daily number of hospitalized Covid patients has fallen below 1,000 statewide. Meanwhile, the state's vaccination efforts have expanded and more than 4 million vaccine doses have been administered in the state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.