In a press conference Wednesday, Apr. 28, Gov. Cooper also announced he is increasing indoor and outdoor gathering limits. That means starting Friday, 100 people can congregate indoors and 200 people may gather outdoors.
The governor has said he hopes to further ease restrictions and possibly eliminate the mask mandate altogether if at least two-thirds of North Carolina adults are at least partially vaccinated.
Right now, nearly half of adults have gotten at least one COVID-19 shot.