GATHERING AND RESTAURANT TABLE SEATING GUIDANCE RELAXED
Governor Phil Scott announced on Friday new updates to COVID-19 guidance for small multi-household gatherings and table seating at restaurants. Effective today, the changes allow two unvaccinated households to gather at a time, and permitting restaurants to seat multiple households together, but no more than six people can be seated at the same table. Masking, distancing, capacity limits, and other mitigation guidelines remain in place.
“I know these changes are not as big as many other states have announced,” said Governor Scott. “But we feel they’re positive and safe steps forward, and you can expect another spigot turn next week. As I’ve said, we’ll keep taking incremental steps as more Vermonters are vaccinated.”
The State previously lifted gathering restrictions for those who have been fully vaccinated. For individuals and households who are not fully vaccinated, social gatherings indoors and outdoors in private spaces are limited to two unvaccinated households or individuals at one time, plus any fully vaccinated households. Unvaccinated households or individuals may gather with more than one other unvaccinated household or individual, as long as there are just two unvaccinated households or individuals at any one gathering.
“Vermont has taken one of, if not the, most cautious approaches in the country in order to slow the spread of the virus and reduce deaths,” said Governor Scott. “I know this has caused a lot of frustration. I hear from people every day who think we should be moving faster to reopen like some other states have. But I want to remind Vermonters, there is a reason we have the lowest number of deaths in the country and the lowest death rate in the continental United States. But as we vaccinate more people, you can expect the spigot turns to be more frequent. I believe we’re going to be in a very good place by summer.”
To view the new guidance in detail, visit https://accd.vermont.gov/news/update-new-work-safe-additions-be-smart-stay-safe-order.
For more information on:
- COVID-19 health information, guidance and case data, visit www.healthvermont.gov/covid19.
- The Governor’s actions, visit https://governor.vermont.gov/covid19response.
- The State’s modeling, visit https://dfr.vermont.gov/about-us/covid-19/modeling.
