Montgomery County to increase indoor dining time limit from 60 to 90 minutes

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - Montgomery County is amending their executive order that allows indoor dining to resume by increasing the dining time limit from 60 to 90 minutes and pushes back the start date to Sunday, Feb. 14.

Indoor dining ban in Montgomery County could be lifted next week

Montgomery County leaders may be ready to lift the ban on indoor dining. We’ve got a look at a new proposed executive order – it outlines a return to 25 percent capacity.

Indoor dining had been set to resume in Montgomery County on Tuesday.

The order also includes a 25% max capacity on indoor dining and a 10 p.m. curfew on alcohol sales and consumption.

Last week, Montgomery County reported 59,292 coronavirus cases and 1,269 deaths. While the seven-day average of confirmed cases per 100,000 residents still equates to a "very high risk of transmission" status at 26.7 reported on Tuesday, February 2nd, that number is still significantly down from 49.8 reported on January 12th.

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich told reporters their coronavirus numbers are low because the county has been "more protective for a long time." Elrich acknowledged the business sector is "truly the collateral damage in all this" and that "it’s one of the unfortunate things about making decisions that maximize public health, is those same decisions are detrimental to the operation of businesses."

Montgomery County was one of the last jurisdictions in the area to resume indoor dining in some capacity.