Mass Gathering, Capacity Limits To Ease In New NC Executive Order

NORTH CAROLINA — Citing continued improvement in COVID-19 metrics throughout the state, capacity limits for businesses, from hair salons to amusement parks, pools and gyms will ease in North Carolina starting Friday, Gov. Roy Cooper announced.

The move to incrementally roll back more restrictions initially put in place to curb community spread of COVID-19 comes as the current slate of statewide restrictions is set to expire March 26 at 5 p.m.

"I’m pleased that we’re holding steady," Cooper said. "Our numbers remain stable. Our hospitalizations are dropping. Our percent of positive tests hovers around the 5 percent benchmark."

Cooper said the new executive order that will go into effect Friday, March 26 will:

• Will increase maximum occupancy up to 100 percent at museums, aquariums, retail businesses, salons and personal care shops.
• Allow capacity to increase up to 75 percent indoors and up to 100 percent outdoors at restaurants, breweries, wineries amusement parks, gyms, pools and other recreation establishments.
• Allow up to 50 percent capacity indoors and outdoors at bars, conference centers, reception venues, sports arenas and other venues for live performances.
• Repeals the statewide 11 p.m. on-site alcohol sale curfew
• Increases the cap for mass gatherings to 50 indoors and 100 outdoors.
• The statewide mask mandate will remain in place.

"These are significant changes, but they can be done safely," Cooper said.

As of Tuesday, March 23, North Carolina reported nearly 900,000 COVID-19 cases, of which 1,062 had been confirmed since Monday. About 6.3 percent of those tested in the state were positive, and 956 people were hospitalized for coronavirus illness. Nearly 12,000 state residents have died from COVID-19, according to state public health officials.

New cases and hospitalizations, however, continue to trend downward, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said Tuesday.

"We're in a promising place," Cohen said. "We can responsibly use our dimmer switch approach to ease restrictions, guided by the science and the data."

Nearly a third of adults in North Carolina have received at least one dose of vaccine, Cohen said. About 32 percent of adults 18 years old and older are partially vaccinated while nearly 19 percent of adult North Carolina residents are fully vaccinated she said.

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