Gov. Ned Lamont made a big announcement Thursdayduring his daily COVID-19 briefing.
Connecticut businesses will begin reopening on May 20, but with some restrictions.
The state’s Reopen Task Force said with the combination of a decline in hospitalizations, and an increase in testing and contact tracing, Connecticut will be in a position to reopen, but will have to continue social distancing.
While some businesses -such as grocery stores, day cares, manufacturing and hospitals were able to remain open during the state shutdown - nearly 20 percent of the state’s population is unemployed.
Although on May 20, some non-essential businesses such as retail stores, offices and hair and nail salons, will get the green light to reopen, giving hope to service industry workers that represent half of those unemployed.
“The remaining retail we’re looking at those are the smaller stores, right on Main street, the toy store, the shoe store, boutiques, jewelry, find out what are the rules in terms of social distancing, masks going forward, and offices we talked about that, where we still recommend if you can telecommute to do so, but if there is need for people to get back, this is the time to put your foot in the water there,” Governor Lamont said.
But not all businesses will be able to reopen, only restaurants with outdoor seating can serve guests and specifically no bars.
“That’s condition upon making sure we have the testing, making sure we are the contact tracing and i’ll be interested in looking at what's going on in Georgia, Oklahoma and some of those states that have a 2-week 3-week head start on us to in terms of opening up a facility, to make sure we don't see any surges or spikes,” Lamont said.
While local business owners agree it’s a step in the right direction, some are looking for more to be done.
The Connecticut Restaurant Association released a statement saying:
“The plans announced today would be a step toward reopening, but we fear it would not be nearly a big enough step to save thousands of restaurants on the brink of going out of business. We can open dining rooms in a way that is safe and would not restrict restaurants to only outdoor service… No sector of Connecticut's economy was hit sooner or hit harder than local restaurants.”
Gov. Lamont said restaurants are a big piece of that service economy.
"I know what that means in terms of employment, I know what that means in terms of bringing our city back to life and also know what that means in terms of virus spread," he said.
Although May 20 is the date businesses can reopen, Lamont said it doesn’t mean you have to open.
“It’s up to the locals, we’re just saying you have a green light to open if you want to, nobody is obviously required to go and I think a lot people are going to self select, I’m finding in Georgia and Oklahoma people are not going back quickly and a lot of stores are not opening quickly,” the governor continued.
The Task Force said in the midst of reopening, social distancing will become more important than ever as they continue to come up with better means of prevention and control.