On Friday morning Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo announced several changes effective at 5 p.m. Friday as part of the next phase of the city’s State of Emergency Declaration. UPDATE: Under the revised order breweries, wineries and distilleries will be permitted to re-open, provided they comply with reduced capacity and social distancing requirements.
Starting Friday evening capacity for hotels and motels will be raised from 25 percent to 50 percent.
In addition, at car dealers sales people must wear a mask if going along on test drives, and cars must be sanitized after each drive.
Mayor Saffo says sports facilities remain closed, but up to five-on-five sports are allowed with spectators as long as they are out of doors.
Dressing rooms will be open with the requirement that clothes are sanitized after they are tried on or taken out of commission for a day.
I asked the Mayor about bar and gym closures, which according to Gov. Cooper are in place for five more weeks.
“I hope that it does change. I think that the governor is cautiously reopening the state and I believe he is going to be taking the advice of his health and human services secretary, Dr. Cohen, and we would hope that it within two weeks, my hope is that within two weeks that we can make some determination on bars and gyms. I know that there was a lot of people that were upset about that, but I do that if the numbers continue, at least the percentage percentage of inpatient continues to go down. I believe that the government will make some, hopefully some exceptions to that a little, but that's up to the governor and to his staff to that, to make that determination.”
If the bar and gym restrictions stay in place, they would not be allowed to open until late June at the earliest.
Vince Winkel, WHQR News.