Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed a new Executive Order on Thursday, that allows events and gatherings to be held at venues based on percentages of their overall capacity.
Previously, Gov. Holcomb’s order limited gatherings and events to a certain number of attendees based on each county’s current color on the state health department’s COVID-19 County Metrics Map, with 25 individuals allowed to gather in Red Zone counties and 50 in Orange counties.
After most of Indiana was in the Red for the past couple of weeks, the rate of Covid-19 spread has slowed and now most of the state is in the Orange, with a few counties in Yellow.
The new Executive Order signed Thursday allows for the following amount of individuals to gather at events:
- Red Counties: 25% of a facility’s capacity
- Orange Counties: 25% of a facility’s capacity
- Yellow Counties: 50% of a facility’s capacity
- Blue Counties: 100% of a facility’s capacity
The order says that for the above conditions to be permitted, the host of the gathering or event must submit a plan to their local health department, which addresses multiple factors like venue capacity.
That plan must also outline what steps will be taken to mitigate the spread of the virus during the event, and the host must enforce those steps.
While Indiana’s COVID-19 County Metrics Map is showing steady progress with most counties scored as Orange and some as Yellow on Wednesday’s latest update, most local counties are still under the Red Zone advisory level.
That’s because a county must meet the metrics/score of a less-restrictive category for two consecutive weeks before being allowed to move to that category.
Should COVID-19 conditions continue to improve, many local counties could be under the Orange advisory level as of Wednesday, Feb. 3, with the state health department’s next update to its County Metrics Map.
The Executive Order signed Thursday by Holcomb will go into effect on Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, at 12:01 a.m., and continue through 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 28
Here is a link to read the entire executive order – https://www.in.gov/gov/governor-holcomb/newsroom/executive-orders/
