The Montgomery County Council approved some additional attractions to reopen, and it addressed requests to expand youth sports and reopen schools during their virtual meeting Monday.
Bowling alleys and museums can reopen starting at 5 p.m. in Montgomery County as the council unanimously approved an executive order.
Also approved is reclassifying soccer as a medium-risk sport. It was previously considered high-risk in the county.
The order continues to prohibit sports tournaments unless there is a letter of approval from the county and sets a 50-person limit for all sporting events. Those with teams from outside D.C., Maryland or Virginia are also prohibited.
“It’s so difficult that we’re not able to give a particular timeline,” said council member Nancy Navarro.
When it comes to those upset about the continued delay of return to in-person school and expansion of sports, she said that slower is better.
“A difficult as it is, it is so much better for us to continue in our approach and hopefully be able to mitigate this as much as possible,” Navarro said.
Earl Stoddard, director of the Montgomery County Office of Emergency management and Homeland Security, said that activities with the younger population should be considered carefully.
“We have a seen a trend over the last six weeks in the state of Maryland and our local jurisdiction where a higher percentage of new cases are in younger people. We can’t ignore that,” Stoddard said.
He said that they need to see those numbers decline if schools are to open to in-person instruction in January.
“Even if the overall numbers are improving to some degree, the test positivities are improving, we have to be sure that we’re looking at the complete picture of data,” Stoddard said.
Also in the executive order is reinstituting a requirement for food service facilities to post signs advising customers about face covering and social distancing restrictions; changing a waiver requirement for religious outdoor services of more than 150 people to a letter of approval; and modifying the definition of “face covering” to include covering the chin as well as the mouth and nose.
- Sign up for WTOP alerts
- DC adds Delaware back to high-risk state list
- Fall school plans for DC, Maryland, Virginia systems during coronavirus
- Latest coronavirus test results in DC, Maryland and Virginia
- Coronavirus FAQ: What you need to know
Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | D.C.
