The second phase of reopening the economy in Connecticut begins June 20 — unless there is a significant increase in COVID-19-related hospitalizations and the state remains unprepared to provide enough contact tracers for new coronavirus cases.
Michael Bingham, editor of New Haven BIZ, explains businesses will need time to prepare.
“As far as the guidelines the businesses themselves will have to follow, the governor's office hasn't specified yet, but they obviously will be based on things like maintaining social distancing, and minimizing or eliminating physical contact between the people who work there and their customers. The problem is that businesses like restaurants and bars and movie theaters, they base their financial projections on metrics like revenue per square foot of space, a restaurant with 25 tables might be able to make money if it keeps 20 of them occupied on average, but not if just 10 of them. And there's a reason your favorite movie theater doesn't have just 10 seats. It's because they need to fill 100 seats on average to break even. The other obvious problem is that the people who own and operate businesses can't plan for when they'll be allowed to resume their livelihoods.”
Governor New Lamont is expected to release rules for businesses reopening during Phase Two by the end of next week.
