The Montgomery County Council is set to vote Tuesday on whether to reopen indoor dining, which has been prohibited for more than a month because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The county is the last in Maryland to ban indoor dining.
If approved, County Executive Marc Elrich’s proposed executive order would permit indoor dining at 25% capacity beginning at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Customers would be limited to one hour inside the eatery, which also must keep a daily record of contact information for at least one customer per dining party to help with contact tracing.
Additionally, alcohol sold for onsite consumption would be suspended at 10 p.m. daily.
Mr. Elrich decided to issue the order after the number of new positive COVID-19 cases fell to levels last seen in early November, according to a statement.
The council has scheduled a public hearing on the order Tuesday morning before the vote.
Local jurisdictions can enforce tighter restrictions than those set statewide by Gov. Larry Hogan, who currently allows indoor dining at 50% capacity and recently lifted a 10 p.m. alcohol sale curfew.
Health department coronavirus data as of Wednesday show that 59,439 cases and 1,276 deaths have been reported in the county of more than 1 million residents.
• Emily Zantow can be reached at ezantow@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.