Restaurant restrictions extended

State health officials have quietly extended restrictions on indoor dining for an extra month, angering some restaurant owners and industry groups.

Now, 25% capacity limits and a 10pm curfew on indoor dining will continue until March 29.

What Happened: After being completely restricted for nearly three months, the state health department allowed restaurants to resume indoor dining February 1. However, they were required to limit the number of people in the restaurant to 25% capacity and close dining rooms after 10pm.

Those rules were set to expire on February 21.

Three days later, on February 4, Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that high school contact sports would be allowed to resume.

Tucked into that order on sports was an unrelated stipulation extending restaurant restrictions through the end of March. Some business representatives said they were aware of it, but that news was overshadowed by the announcement restarting sports.

In an interview with MLive, Charles Owens, the Michigan director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said those restrictions could be the nail in the coffin for some restaurants.

“It just further exacerbates the problems that that particular industry is having. We weren’t surprised. We were disappointed,” he said.

You can read more here.