Bars and restaurants will have a 10 p.m. curfew when indoor restaurants reopen on February 1

Indoor dining may reopen in Michigan as of Monday, February 1, but the restart comes with strict restrictions.

Bars and restaurants will be mandated to close before 10 p.m. and will be limited to 25% of capacity or 100 people – whichever is less, Governor Gretchen Whitmer said at a press conference on Friday, January 22.

Michigan restaurants were allowed to open at 50% capacity in the summer and fall and had no curfews. Indoor dining has been closed in Michigan since November 18.

The revised health ordinance goes into effect on February 1 and ends on February 21. A few activities are to remain closed, including nightclubs, water parks and some contact sports, the state said.

Other states have similar curfews in hopes of reducing gatherings. Ohio has had a 10 p.m. restaurant curfew since November.

As the ban on eating in place will end, state leaders continue to encourage take-out, delivery, or alfresco dining instead. Doctors and scientists keep saying that gathering indoors without a mask is one of the easiest ways to spread COVID-19, said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan medical director.

“Just because something is open doesn’t mean it’s 100% safe or you should do it,” Khaldun said. “The safest thing to do is not to eat in a restaurant.”

Groups like the elderly or people with health problems should especially think twice before eating in a restaurant, Khaldun said.

Michigan restaurant groups have bittersweet feelings about the news – happy to reopen, but concerned about the restrictions.

“Reopening at 25% capacity is a start, but it’s not what we were hoping for or what our industry needs at the moment,” said Scott Ellis, executive director of the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association, in A press release. “Many establishments have been closed because take-out sales were not enough to keep them open. We are concerned that a strict capacity limit like this will continue to keep these venues closed. “

A recent MLBA survey shows that only about two-thirds of bars and restaurants would be ready to reopen if capacity limits were set at 25%. As long as customers are socially distanced, Ellis said businesses should be allowed to have more people inside.

“Universal restrictions like these just don’t make sense,” Ellis said. “A breakfast isn’t a problem keeping a nighttime curfew, but an upscale restaurant in downtown Detroit does because people typically don’t frequent these places until later in the evening.”

Friday’s announcement is “late news,” Justin Winslow, president and CEO of the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association, said in a press release.

The MRLA wants clear metrics to show when restaurants can open with higher capacities. Winslow is also advocating that hospitality workers be moved to the top of the vaccination line.

State leaders have focused on three metrics in recent months when deciding what to open: the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and the percentage of tests returning positive.

All three have fallen by more than half since the on-site eating ban began.

Since November 18, the seven-day average of cases per day has increased from 6,900 per day to 1,900 per day. COVID-19-related hospitalizations fell from about 3,800 to less than 1,900. And the percentage positive rate fell from about 13.5% to less than 5%.

When the on-site eating ban began, there were 65 active outbreaks linked to bars and restaurants. As of this week, there are seven active outbreaks related to these facilities.

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