D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday extended her stay-at-home order for the coronavirus pandemic until June 8.
Miss Bowser said the city is not where it needs to be in terms of decreasing community transmission to reopen this week, when the mayor’s order initially was set to expire.
Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, D.C.’s health director, said she’s focusing on trends related to symptom onset to monitor community transmission instead of new daily cases.
“Based on the data, I can revise this order at any time to reflect a phased reopening,” Miss Bowser said at a press conference.
The mayor also announced that she is launching a pilot program to allow some locally owned educational and academic retail shops, such as book, music and toy stores, to open for curbside and front door pick up sales.
Businesses interested in the program will be able to apply starting May 15, and if approved, they won’t allow customers inside and they will have to share data about sales, hours and how they adjusted operations with the District government.
Miss Bowser said city officials will use this pilot as a learning opportunity for how to approach reopening.
• Sophie Kaplan can be reached at skaplan@washingtontimes.com.
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