Governor to ease restrictions on restaurants, fitness and retail centers in most counties starting May 1
Restaurants, fitness centers, and retail centers will be able to operate at 50 percent capacity in 77 counties starting May 1.
Gov. Kim Reynolds speaks during the Condition of the State address at the Iowa State Capitol on Jan. 14.
April 27, 2020
Restaurants, fitness centers, and retail centers will be able to partially reopen at 50 percent capacity in 77 Iowa counties starting May 1, Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a press conference Monday.
In addition, malls will be able to reopen at 50 percent capacity, but play areas and food courts inside will remain closed, and food courts will be carry-out only.
The easing of restrictions applies to all Iowa counties except for the following: Allamakee, Benton, Black Hawk, Bremer, Dallas, Des Moines, Dubuque, Fayette, Henry, Iowa, Jasper, Johnson, Linn, Louisa, Marshall, Muscatine, Polk, Poweshiek, Scott, Tama, Washington, and Woodbury.
Restrictions in these 22 counties will remain through May 15.
Most gatherings will still be restricted to 10 people or less, but Reynolds will be lifting the restriction on religious gatherings statewide, saying churches should still adhere to social distancing guidelines.
The news follows Friday’s announcement that farmers markets and elective surgeries would be allowed to resume statewide starting Monday. Reynolds is joining governors in Georgia, Tennessee, and several other states pushing for a partial reopening of sectors of the economy, as cases statewide surge with more than 2,000 new cases in Iowa last week.
Reynolds said the decision on which counties to move to reopen came from looking at case count trends, hospitalization rates, and recovery rates. Reynolds said the 77 counties selected have stabilized and shown a downward trend in the last 14 days, or had no activity.
“Iowa has specific locations where virus activity is widespread, and we have areas where virus activity is sporadic and other locations where there is no activity at all,” she said. “Knowing this we can take a targeted approach to loosening restrictions on businesses and counties where there is no virus activity or where virus activity has been consistently low and shown a downward trend.”
Federal guidelines for reopening suggest that a state should see a downward trend in new cases over a 14 day period to start easing restrictions, which Iowa has not met statewide. However, there are no guidelines for the patchwork reopening strategy that Reynolds is implementing.
