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June 5, 2020

Lamont to allow restaurants and some other businesses to open on June 17

HBJ Photo | Joe Cooper Hartford's Trumbull Kitchen reopened for outdoor dining service on May 20.
By Gregory B. Hladky, CT Mirror

Connecticut restaurants will be allowed to serve customers indoors as early as June 17 and movie theaters and gyms can also reopen that day, three days earlier than originally planned, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Friday.

Lamont said in a post on Twitter that he was moving up the reopening date from June 20 “to avoid having Phase 2 of Connecticut’s reopening efforts take effect during a busy Father’s Day weekend.”

Father’s Day falls on June 21 this year.

Bars will still be closed as of June 17 but Lamont’s accelerated plan will also permit museums, zoos, amusement parks, sports clubs, libraries and some youth sport programs to resume operations.

The governor said state health officials are continuing to monitor whether all the large demonstrations in recent days could produce another surge in COVID-19 infection rates. Experts across the U.S. have warned that the massive protests triggered by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis could lead to significant increases in coronavirus infections.

“But at long as COVID hospitalizations and infection rates remain low, we will be in a very good position for a June 17 Phase 2,” Lamont said.

State reports released Thursday showed that Connecticut’s COVID-19 fatalities now number at least 4,007. But people hospitalized for the potentially deadly virus dropped by 33, bringing the total hospital cases down to 373.

According to statistics compiled by John Hopkins University, Fairfield County ranks 10 in the nation for the number of confirmed or probable COVID-19 related deaths with 1,293.

Hartford County ranks 11th in the U.S. for coronavirus fatalities, with 1,266 and New Haven County sits at 16th in the nation with 992 deaths from the virus.

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