Boone County ready to relax more COVID-19 restrictions

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia/Boone County health director unveiled Thursday a new COVID-19 health order that will take effect next week.

The new order goes into effect Tuesday.

The new order largely tracks along with a timeline health director Stephanie Browning presented to the Columbia City Council last month and will be in place through July 20. Under the new order most occupancy limits for businesses are gone. However, personal care services such as hair salons will have to abide by a 50 percent occupancy limit or 50 or fewer people inside the business, whichever is fewer.

Stable groups at daycares will increase from 25 to 50 children and public gathering limits will increase from 50 to 100 people.

All sports including contact sports will be allowed to continue or resume but spectators will be limited to 50 percent of the venue's capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer.

Movie theaters and other large venues can be open but must submit plans to the health department and limit their capacity to 100 people while observing social distancing.

Swimming pools will be allowed to remain open as long as they have submitted a plan and maintain social distancing.

The health department announced the details in a news release, saying the county has met the standards needed to relax the rules despite a recent uptick in cases.

"Although there has been a rise in cases in Boone County, PHHS continues to closely monitor several factors that continue to determine the pace in which the community reopens," the release says. "At this time, all triggers are being met to move forward in the reopening process."

Boone County stood at 232 cases, with 43 active, as of Thursday morning. Boone County health officials have reported 34 new cases in the last week alone. Wednesday was the second straight day with eight new cases reported.