Milwaukee now in phase 3 of reopening: Here's what that means

By Nick Williams
– Reporter, Milwaukee Business Journal

Jun 5, 2020, 5:19pm CDT


With the city of Milwaukee now moving into phase three of its reopening plan, if progress continues over the next two weeks, some businesses could operate at three-fourths of their capacity by the end of the month.

City officials implemented the third phase Friday at 2 p.m.




On Thursday, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said his office and health officials made some modifications to previously announced restrictions for business during phase three. Under phase three, businesses can operate at 50% of its building's capacity; restaurants and bars move from take out and delivery to having indoor service at 25% capacity, while salons and barbershops will stay at 25% capacity with one client-per worker ratios.

Outdoor dining will be allowed with precautions, Barrett said.

Also, hotels and motels could move from 25% capacity to 50% capacity; stores that sell groceries and medicine and retail establishments could increase customer capacity from the current 25% limit to 50%; and places of amusement like stadiums, theme parks and movie theaters, and gyms and athletic centers can operate at 25% capacity, have one person for every 30 square feet, or no more than 250 people, though it must be the lesser of the three.

Moving to phase four of the reopening plan could happen June 19 based on the city's model, where after an assessment of a minimum of 14 days from Thursday, health officials can say whether the city met its gating criteria.

Under the city's guidelines for phase four, grocery and retail stores could operate at 75% capacity, restaurants and bars can operate at 50% capacity; salons and spas would operate at 75%, although those businesses were initially said to be able to function at 50% capacity under phase three; and hotels and motels could operate at 75% capacity with their pools and fitness rooms at 50%. Also under phase four, long-term care facilities could allow visitations again from adult family members who must be screened for signs and symptoms of Covid-19.

The city's decision to lift more restrictions is based on criteria around positive cases of Covid-19, testing capacity for the disease, contact tracing, equipment inventory and hospitalizations.

Using indicators similar to how a common traffic light works, a green metric result is marked as excellent. A yellow result indicates the city will have to proceed with caution, and a red result means there's reason to be concerned. The city would only move into the next phase if all indicators were in the yellow, which occurred this week. If any gating criteria is red during a phase, the city will reassess it every seven days.

"We would like to reiterate that Covid-19 did not disappear when the Supreme Court ruling eliminated the state’s Safer at Home order," a statement from the city's Department of Health read. "Several areas where the state has fully reopened are seeing significant increases in Covid-19 illness and they are being faced with difficult decisions to issue new local orders and shuttering businesses that have active outbreaks. The MHD is committed to moving us forward with your best interests and safety at mind and heart. We need to stride forward with confidence."

As of Friday, there have been a total of 6,905 total positive cases of Covid-19 in the city and 198 deaths from the virus.