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Browning: social distancing “new normal” for a long time

Boone County is now in the “slow reopen” phase of its response to the coronavirus. The local stay-at-home order ended Monday.

County health director Stephanie Browning says this phase includes four steps of gradually allowing more things. Each step will take at least a few weeks. Then, Browning says the county can look forward.

“When we move to the next phase we want to give businesses more time,” Browning said at Monday night’s Columbia City Council meeting. “It’s hard on them to say on Thursday ‘you can open on Monday.'”

Even as Boone County slowly starts to reopen, social distancing and limits on mass gatherings will still continue.

“This is going to be our new normal for months. With the restrictions loosening up we have to stay apart. It’s the one thing we have.”

Browning says the county has the resources to trace the contacts of about 40 coronavirus cases a day. Experts say that’s a key to limiting the spread.

One comment

  1. Bureaucrat not elected. Now that we know the science and have weakened our immune systems by staying inside, more people are going to get sick, not necessarily the corona. We have a balance in our immune system that needs to be maintained. Can’t shut it off.

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