Judge in Anne Arundel County expected to give final ruling on restaurant dining during COVID-19
By Ayesha Khan
Anne Arundel County restaurants challenging indoor dining ban
Restaurants in Anne Arundel county are challenging a mandate banning indoor dining amid a spike in coronavirus cases.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Anne Arundel County is continuing to push tighter restrictions on how restaurants can operate during the pandemic.
A judge in the case has yet to decide whether a county executive order to ban all outdoor and indoor dining beginning Jan. 13, would go into effect or not.
About three weeks ago, County Executive Steuart Pittman issued an executive order to close indoor and outdoor dining in the county, but on Dec. 16 four restaurants were able to stop that from happening on with a court-ordered temporary restraining order.
CASE DISMISSED: Pittman backs down, allows indoor dining at 25% for County restaurants eyeonannapolis.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from eyeonannapolis.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Anne Arundel County reverses ban, allows indoor dining at 25 percent capacity
By FOX 5 Digital Team
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BETHESDA, MD - MARCH 22: Interior dining room at Le Vieux Logis restaurant in Bethesda, MD. 2014. Busy interior dining room with guests at Le Vieux Logis restaurant (Photo by Greg Powers For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The decision comes from County Executive Steuart Pittman following a two day court hearing. Pittman signed a new executive order Wednesday.
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A Maryland County Executive agreed to allow indoor dining Wednesday after a group of restaurants filed a lawsuit challenging the county’s ban on indoor dining.
In exchange for allowing restaurants to have indoor dining at 25% capacity, Titan Hospitality Group agreed to dismiss their lawsuit against Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman. The lawsuit challenged an executive order that was granted Dec. 16 by Judge William C. Mulford II which banned indoor dining for 4 weeks.
Pittman said in a Wednesday statement that the indoor dining ban “was based on our strong desire to save lives and protect public health.”
The hearing continued Tuesday with county officials defending the executive order.
The judge pressed Anne Arundel County Health Officer Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman for answers, demanding to know why the county is relying on hospital bed capacity projections rather than actual numbers.
The health officer told the court the county heavily relies on the number of COVID-19 hospitalization projections to determine what safety measures to put in place to help stop the spread. The numbers for December were off by 5,000 beds, leaving more than enough space to handle a spike in cases.
Mulford: This is not in the realm of reasonable probability. Why are you so wildly off with your projections? Why do you need to do more?