The Orange County government announced a change to its state of emergency order that now mandates restaurants stop serving dine-in customers past 10 p.m. each night.
Shared with the public on Thursday, the order cited several restaurants in the county remaining open to early morning hours and serving primarily alcohol instead of food as impetus for the measure.
Bars remain closed under North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s executive orders about reopening the state, with expectation they could be opened in an eventual Phase 3.
According to the county’s amendment, restaurants may continue drive-thru, delivery and pick-up services past the 10 p.m. threshold, but there must not be “onsite consumption of food and beverage” nor offsite table service. The restriction will run through each night until 5 a.m. for food service and 7 a.m. for alcohol sales at restaurants, breweries, bars and other businesses.
Orange County Commissioner Penny Rich spoke with 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck on Wednesday. She said the county was considering a change since some businesses were not complying with masks or distancing requirements.
“We’ve had a couple of complaints of the past two weekends that we’ve gone and checked out, and the complaints were valid,” said Rich. “We’re working to try and make [restaurants] understand that you can’t do this, but we’re not being very successful. We’ve tried the education process and we’re trusting people will do the best thing for themselves and their neighbors, but it’s not happening at these restaurants.”
Rich also said some restaurants have been using the opportunity to serve dine-in customers to stay open late and transition into operating as bars, which also plays into the county’s decision for an amendment.
“Bars can’t be open,” she said, “they’re not allowed under the governor’s order. And that’s not what we’re finding in Chapel Hill.”
The new mandate requires additional changes be made, specifically to where dine-in customers can sit or what they can access while at restaurants. Seating or standing room at bar counters for food or beverage consumption is no longer allowed under the amendment. Patrons are not allowed to touch shared surfaces like bar counters, pool tables, darts or pinball machines either as a measure to limit contact.
In March, the state government called for all restaurants and bars to close in an effort to mitigate the early spread of COVID-19 across North Carolina. Since then, many businesses shifted to pick-up and delivery methods to maintain service. As part of Phase 2 of the state’s reopening, restaurants were some of the businesses permitted to accept customers indoors again at 50 percent capacity.
As part of both Orange County and North Carolina’s state of emergency and safer at home order, all outdoor activities, gatherings or events of more than 25 people are prohibited. Some exceptions like religious gatherings, funerals, weddings and others are exempt, but restaurants are not. It is also an Orange County provision amid the pandemic that no more than six people are allowed to be at a restaurant table at once.
Thursday’s amendment to Orange County’s state of emergency order is slated to go into effect at 5 p.m. on Friday. The full amendment can be found on the county’s website.
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This is absolute garbage. They are politicizing this virus in order to steal back power in the election in November. First they tried to push a fake Russian Conspiracy Theory for 3 years where the Democrats conspired with the FBI and lied to the FISA courts. When that failed, they tried to impeach Trump for Quid Pro Quo even though there was ample evidence that it never happened. When that failed to pass the Senate, & the pandemic started, they called Trump a racist and xenophobic for banning travel from China and for anyone who had been to China in the past 14 days. Now they are trying to tank the economy that was the greatest in history before this started to get politicized.
Did you fall and hit yours head?
People walk around with blinders on and see and believe what they want. Let someone treat them or someone in their family the same way Trump has done to our country with no respect or understanding and then would change their view.