Anchorage on Monday will relax its COVID-19 restrictions under a new emergency order that will allow more people in bars and restaurants and ease limits on gathering sizes and organized sports.
The new Emergency Order 18 goes into effect at 8 a.m. Monday, Feb. 1, and will remain in place until it is revoked, according to an announcement from Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson’s office on Thursday.
While easing up on some of the businesses that have been most restricted under the two previous orders, the new order makes few changes for other businesses like retail, salons and gyms.
Anchorage has seen a slow but steady decline in coronavirus cases over the last month. Quinn-Davidson said during the announcement Thursday that the city has made “incredible progress” and attributed the decline in cases to difficult sacrifices made by the community.
“We’re in a position that we have to navigate carefully,” Quinn-Davidson said. “For now we’re heading in the right direction. And we need to keep it that way.”
The new order aims to strike a balance, slowly reopening the city further while remaining careful, she said.
“It leaves critical public health measures in place while strategically easing restrictions on some of the most impacted sectors that we’ve been hearing from,” she said.
The most notable changes under Emergency Order 18 include:
• Starting Monday, bars, restaurants and breweries can begin operating at 50% capacity. The time limit on alcohol service will also be loosened slightly — alcohol service can run until midnight starting Monday. The previous emergency order, which remains in effect through the weekend, required businesses to stop serving alcohol at 11 p.m.
• Sports teams within the municipality will be able to compete indoors with other teams from within the municipality. Previously, indoor competition had been banned.
• Bingo halls and theaters will also be able to expand to 50% capacity under the new emergency order.
• Indoor gatherings with food and drink will be restricted to 10 people; without food and drink, indoor gatherings are restricted to 15 people.
• Outdoor gatherings with food will be restricted to 30 people; without food, outdoor gatherings are restricted to 50 people.
Capacity limits for businesses that offer personal care services such as salons or tattoo parlors, gyms, retail and other public-facing businesses will remain unchanged at 50% capacity.
“Easing restrictions shifts more responsibility to individual decision,” Quinn-Davidson said during the announcement Thursday. “If we continue doing the things we know work, we are hopeful that we can continue to keep the virus in check, long enough for vaccine to become widely available.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
[Below: Watch the acting mayor’s announcement of the new emergency order.]
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January 29, 2021 at 07:07AM
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