Now that Kenan Stadium has the ability to reopen a few thousand of its seats for Tar Heel Football games, some county officials are concerned.

On Tuesday, Governor Roy Cooper announced that large outdoor event venues will be allowed to open at seven percent capacity beginning on Friday, October 2. The venues, largely athletics facilities and stadiums, must have at least 10,000 seats to qualify. This announcement is the latest move in reopening following the state’s transition to Phase 2.5, which began on September 4.

For UNC Athletics, Kenan Stadium will be allowed to open 3,570 of its 51,000 seats for remaining football games. This change is a shift from initial state government guidance, which previously said sporting events are not exempt from North Carolina’s mass gathering limit.

Under Phase 2.5 of the state’s reopening, the mass gathering limit for North Carolina is currently 25 people indoors and 50 outdoors – although Orange County is currently adhering to stricter regulations.

When Phase 2.5 went into effect, the county was experiencing more than ten percent of positive COVID-19 test results across recent weeks. Because of this, county officials chose to supersede some of the state’s orders and keep the mass gathering limit to 10 indoors and 25 outdoors.

While Orange County’s stricter mass gathering limit is still currently in effect, Orange County Commissioner Penny Rich said the county does not have the authority to prohibit mass gatherings on UNC’s campus.

“As far as folks being allowed in Kenan Stadium, Orange County really has no control over that because it’s a state school,” Rich said. “Government entities are exempt from any local restrictions, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have concerns.”

Orange County’s order limiting mass gatherings is slated to run until November 1. Although, officials said if the county can maintain a COVID-positive testing rate under five percent, the orders would be amended sooner.

However, in light of Cooper’s latest announcement, and the prospect of moving into Phase 3 next month, Rich said amendments to the county’s order will be postponed.

“The mayors and I decided today that we’re just going to hold onto what our order states until October second when the governor makes his next order change – just not to confuse anyone in the first place,” Rich said.

For the last few weeks, Orange County has managed to attain and keep a low percentage of positive tests – currently siting at a 3.6 percent positive test rate.  Despite these low numbers, Rich said they are still going to wait before making any changes.

“We told everybody if we got under 5 [percent] we would increase those gathering sizes, but we don’t want to do that and then change it again on the second [of October],” Rich said. “We’ve gotten this far, the parties have subsided a bit in Chapel Hill – people are really doing a good job and we want to encourage that good behavior.”

Although the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests in the county is currently low, Rich said there is still apprehension from the Orange County Health Department regarding Kenan Stadium allowing thousands of fans back in.

“When you think about Kenan, you can spread people out enough, and they’re outside, so that part is fine,” Rich said. “I think the concern, especially with the health department, is when people go to the bathroom or when people are entering or leaving. There’s all these things in play where we need to make sure people are not near each other – and that’s going to be up to the university to make sure that happens.”

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