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Prince George’s County shuns Phase 3 reopening
While Maryland can move into Phase 3 of reopening beginning at 5 p.m Friday, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced Thursday that the county is 'not there yet.'
UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - Prince George’s County will not enter Stage 3 of Maryland’s reopening process, county executive Angela Alsobrooks announced on Thursday.
The state’s final reopening stage allows the opening of virtually all businesses with restrictions.
READ MORE: Maryland entering Stage 3 of reopening Friday; all businesses allowed to reopen
Alsobrooks said that while the county’s positivity rate was at 4.1 percent many other parts of the county remain over the critical 5 percent positivity mark.
“We are concerned because we still have around 13 of our ZIP Codes that remain over the 5 percent threshold so we remain concerned about rolling back restrictions,” Alsobrooks said. She said the county’s daily rate Thursday was 11.4 cases per 100,000 people, above the state rate of 8.7.
Alsobrooks went on to explain that leading into the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the community was seeing a sustained decline in COVID-19 with low numbers and a low rate of infection. But after the holiday weekend and all of the gatherings that took place during that time period, the county saw a spike in cases and health officials are still working to recover from that spike.
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The county executive also cautioned residents not to hold or attend large gatherings over the upcoming Labor Day holiday weekend.
“We do not want anyone to become complacent and to feel that COVID-19 is over and to begin hosting large family gatherings and other things this weekend that will lead to a spike in cases, Alsobrooks said.
Some businesses in Bowie told FOX 5’s Ayesha Khan that while they are continuing to feel the impact of the previous shutdown and current restrictions in place, health and safety trumps all.
Anthony Davis’ barbershop is somewhat back in business while the pandemic rages on but he said that he wants to keep it that way and be fully operational one day.
“We want people to be safe as much as possible so that we can stay open because we don’t want to have to close, we can wait a little longer, it can’t hurt,” Davis said.
“I’m fine both ways but I think it’s a good idea to wait,” said restaurant manager Shaun Holness.
Neighboring Montgomery County is also holding off on moving into phase 3.
“Our caseload has increased,” said County Executive Marc Elrich Thursday. “A few weeks ago, we managed to get cases down to the forty-fifty a day range and right now our average is back up to seventy.”
Meanwhile, Doug Murdoch, the executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners, released a statement following Alsobrooks’ announcement saying:“We regret that Prince George's County has made the decision not to open movie theaters. This is a tremendous disappointment to our employees, managers, and all moviegoers. The stated rationale for keeping local theater's shuttered certainly does not align with decisions to open casinos, restaurants, and other like venues. We have reached out to the county to set the record straight on wrongly stated data and commentary around our local theaters. Our hope is for a reevaluation and reconsideration at the earliest possible time.”
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