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October 30, 2020

Elicker rolls back Elm City businesses to phase 2

PHOTO | New Haven BIZ New Haven City Hall.
By Natalie Missakian

Citing a spike in cases that he fears will soon push New Haven into the COVID-19 “red zone,”  Mayor Justin Elicker has tightened restrictions on city businesses effective immediately.

Elicker announced a citywide rollback to Gov. Ned Lamont’s phase 2 reopening guidelines during a virtual press conference Thursday. 

The decision means restaurants, hair salons and other “high-touch” personal service businesses in the city must now operate at 50% capacity, instead of the 75% that’s been permitted under phase 3 guidelines since Oct. 8.

Meanwhile, indoor performing arts centers, which were allowed to reopen with limited capacity in phase 3, will go back to being closed, city officials said. 

Read details on the phase 2 and 3 guidelines here.

Elicker said the city didn’t make the decision lightly, but is prioritizing residents’ health and safety. 

“We realize that these decisions impact people’s lives in significant ways, so there was a lot of deliberation,” he said. 

Elicker said the state’s two-week rolling average was up to 13.9 cases per 100,000 people, including Yale students.

That’s higher than previous tallies, which did not account for Yale students because many have primary addresses outside New Haven. 

He said the data also doesn’t include cases from regional testing facility Docs Urgent Care, which has “not adequately been reporting that data to the state.”

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, data from New Haven wastewater testing showed a major spike in COVID-19, suggesting an impending surge in cases.

“There’s a high possibility that we are going from the orange category to potential red,” city Public Health Director Maritza Bond said. 

Economic Development Director Michael Piscitelli said the city would extend permits to help restaurants continue outdoor dining through the winter, assist with marketing to promote takeout and delivery, and share best practices for limited indoor dining.

He said city officials spoke with the restaurant community on Thursday to look at “cohesive marketing strategies” similar to what Market New Haven is doing with the Passport to Dining campaign for downtown, which is running through the holidays.

The city also will step up enforcement to make sure all local businesses are complying with the guidelines “to make sure that we go back to phase 3,” said Piscitelli.  

“Obviously the strain on every individual business is significant right now,”  he said, but “many people in our business community firmly recognize that everyone needs to do their part and the public health takes priority over any individual need.”

New Haven’s rollback of phase 3 reopening guidelines comes as Connecticut’s daily coronavirus infection rate soared past 6% on Thursday -- roughly six times the daily rate the state faced all summer and early into fall.

The governor opted not to reverse statewide restrictions on business activities, but granted municipalities more flexibility to issue stricter guidelines for businesses within their own borders.

The governor had announced earlier this month that communities with more than 15 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents — based on two weeks of test results — could opt to roll back the Phase 3 rules for businesses.

The governor broadened that option Thursday, saying communities with more than 10 cases per 100,000 residents also could roll back Phase 3.
That means about half of all Connecticut’s 169 cities and towns, 85 in total, now can tighten rules on businesses. Those communities contain about 70% of Connecticut’s population.

“Phase 2 is probably a safer place to be,” he said.

Joe DeLong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, praised Lamont for offering the option to communities, predicting it would “pique interest.”

Because Connecticut is a relatively small state, some municipal leaders were fearful if they tightened rules on businesses, customers could reach stores in neighboring towns with a simple 10-minute drive or less, he said. But with 85 cities and towns now having the option, “this certainly gives them a greater level of flexibility to work together regionally.”

Chris DiPentima, president and CEO of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, noted that Lamont has blamed informal social gatherings, and not stores and their consumers, for the rising infection rates.

“If the business community isn’t causing the spread, this isn’t going to stop the spread,” DiPentima said. “All this is going to do is cause economic damage.”

Though he opted not to order a statewide return to Phase 2 on Thursday, Lamont warned that might not be far off.

“Over the next few days we’ll see whether that’s enough,” he said, adding the administration also is exploring suspending winter sports in Connecticut schools. Massachusetts and New Hampshire recently suspended hockey.

The governor tried to offer some hope as well Thursday, saying that while the latest infection rate is no fluke, “I’m not an alarmist. We’re going to come down from that number.”

He added that “6.1% is like a gut punch,” but “we’re going to manage our way through this.”

A Connecticut Mirror report was included in this story. Contact Natalie Missakian at news@newhavenbiz.com
 

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