Larry Hogan lifts capacity limits for Maryland restaurants, churches, gyms

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Tuesday that capacity limits for restaurants, religious facilities and fitness centers will be lifted Friday.

“All of our vaccine progress along with all of our sustained positive improvements … have enabled us to continue to follow the science and to be able, today, to take significant steps to further ease more of the mitigation measures currently in place,” Mr. Hogan said during a press conference.

Occupancy restrictions also will be removed for retail businesses, personal services and indoor recreational facilities. However, restaurants and bars must continue to provide sit-down, distanced service.

Large indoor and outdoor venues, including wedding and concert halls, will be able to expand to 50% capacity. The rules will go into effect at 5 p.m.

Safety protocols such as masks and social distancing will still be required for all businesses, which Mr. Hogan said is “the most important thing” when it comes to easing rules.

“Many states have not done that, and I think, you know, acted a little more rapidly to just get rid of all the mitigation efforts, and we chose not to do that,” the Republican said. “Lifting capacity limits while still maintaining all those orders, we think, is a safer approach.”

Asked about the state law that allows local jurisdictions to implement stricter regulations, Mr. Hogan said it’s better if they adhere to the statewide rules.

“My advice would be that they should follow the state guidance and get in line,” he said. “It’s been very confusing with a patchwork of different people with, you know, changing rules or not being in alignment with one another.”

Acting Health Secretary Dennis R. Schrader responded this week to backlash over the decision to expand vaccine eligibility to people 65 or older in January despite limited supplies. Mr. Schrader said the change was to address racial disparities in life expectancy as Whites tend to make up the majority of populations 75 and older, The Baltimore Sun reported.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said Tuesday that he plans to ease coronavirus restrictions next month if health metrics “continue to be favorable.”

“The cases are going down, the positivity rate’s going down, vaccinations are going up,” Mr. Northam said during a press conference. “If these numbers continue, if the trends continue to be favorable, we’ll make further modifications that will start on April 1.”

Details about which restrictions might change were not provided. Mr. Northam most recently rolled back restrictions on March 1. That included terminating the statewide curfew and increasing capacity at outdoor entertainment venues and amusement parks.

Mr. Northam said he is often asked when the commonwealth will be able “go back to normal” and that “it’s when we reach herd immunity and this virus has nowhere to live and will go away.”

Three new mass vaccine sites with the ability to inoculate “up to several thousand people per day” are set to open next week in Petersburg, Danville and Portsmouth, he said.

In response to a question about how the locations were chosen, Curtis Brown, director of Virginia Department of Emergency Management, said accessibility and equity were taken into consideration.

“The sites were selected through an assessment of all the local governments. We were looking for large sites that were accessible to the public,” Mr. Brown said. “We [also] had an equity analysis to look at how close they were to vulnerable populations.”

These sites will be the first of “hopefully up to” 13 total that will open within the next three months, he said.

In the District, officials are scheduled to launch a vaccine pre-registration website Wednesday.

Plans for a new system were announced last week after city officials said heavy user traffic caused technical errors to plague the online registration portal.

Officials said upgrades to the server, adding a waiting room and removal of the Captcha prompt are expected to make for a “better user experience.”