RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday a new executive order that will ease more COVID-related restrictions in North Carolina. Executive Order 204 will go into effect on Friday, March 26 at 5 p.m. and expire on April 30. The mask mandate and social distancing guidelines will remain in place.
Here's what will change:
- Some places will be able to increase capacity up to 100% indoors and outdoors with safety protocols in place. They include museums, aquariums, retail businesses and shops, salons and personal care shops.
- The new order will allow some places to increase capacity up to 75% indoors and up to 100% outdoors. They include restaurants, breweries, wineries, amusement parks, gyms and pools, and other recreation establishments.
- Additionally, the new order will allow some places to increase capacity up to 50% indoors and outdoors. That includes bars, conference centers and reception venues, sports arenas, and other venues for live performances.
- Facilities at 50% capacity also include tobacco lounges, night clubs, auditoriums, and gaming facilities.
- Movie theaters and gaming facilities may operate at up to 75% capacity outdoors.
- In addition, effective Friday, Cooper will lift the 11 p.m. curfew for on-site alcohol consumption.
- The mass gathering limit, which covers other kinds of gatherings not otherwise laid out in the order, will be increased to 50 indoors and 100 outdoors.
Cooper said the easing of restrictions comes as North Carolina's COVID-19 data continues to trend in a better direction.
"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.
Fewer people are going to hospitals with COVID-like symptoms and our state's percentage of positive COVID-19 cases is hovering around the 5% goal.
"We're in a promising place," NCDHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen said.
She said state health leaders are closely watching new COVID-19 variants that could shake up our data.
“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,” Cohen said.
State officials are also keeping an eye on daily COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, as both metrics have declined but recently plateaued.
Those better metrics are largely due to more people getting vaccinated.
“Our fast and fair vaccine distribution and our sustained progress with the COVID-19 metrics tell us we can move forward with easing restrictions if we do it safely,” Cooper said.
32% of all North Carolinians ages 18 and older have been at least partially vaccinated. 19% of North Carolinians are fully vaccinated.
4.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in North Carolina.
State leaders said previously, North Carolina will move to Group 5 vaccinations sometime in May. Rockingham County has already moved to this group, ahead of the state, because of less demand in the other groups.
According to Gov. Cooper’s office, Executive Order No. 204 has three general categories of occupancy restrictions: up to 100% capacity, 75% capacity, and 50% capacity.
All businesses must continue to maintain the 6 feet of distance requirement between people and implement other safety protocols as they expand their capacity.
Officials said vaccine equity efforts remain a priority, with 18% of first doses administered to Black North Carolinians and 8% to members of the LatinX community last week.
DHHS also released updates to the K-12 guidance. Schools should fully return to in-person instruction possible while following all public health protocols in the StrongSchoolsNC Toolkit.
