The city of Burlington will allow its bars to reopen this week, Mayor Miro Weinberger said Wednesday.
Gov. Phil Scott announced last week that bars across Vermont may reopen on Wednesday after more than four months of closure — though they must adhere to restrictions on their hours and capacity.
Municipalities may impose their own limits on bars, but Weinberger said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon that Burlington has no plan to do so.
“We considered doing that, and decided that did not make sense,” he said. “I don’t see a justification to have harsher rules on bars than restaurants on the other side of the street.” He added that the city would watch the situation closely.
Under state guidelines, bars will be subject to the same restrictions as restaurants. Both are limited to 50% occupancy and must end table service at 10 p.m.
They can seat a maximum of six people together at a table — though the governor has now loosened restrictions that prevented bars and restaurants from seating more than one household together.
Burlington imposed its own restrictions on bars earlier in the pandemic. Last August, the city imposed an 11 p.m. curfew on bars as college students returned for the fall semester. The City Council lifted the curfew six weeks later, after students’ arrival did not cause a spike in cases.
Cases rise among those in their 20s
Scott ordered Vermont bars to be closed in November 2020, in response to a sharp increase in Covid cases statewide. Since then, Burlington’s bar owners have been anxious to reopen.
Yet, this week’s reopening arrived as the city experienced a rise in cases of Covid-19 — particularly among young people.
In the last week, Chittenden County has had an average of 43 new Covid cases per day, up from about 29 cases per day the week prior.
According to data the city presented on Wednesday, this recent rise is largely due to a spike in cases of Covid-19 among 20- to 29-year-olds in Chittenden County.
No other age group has had a comparable increase in Covid cases during that time frame, according to the city’s data. Among people ages 30 to 59, cases have stayed level. And for individuals over age 60, cases have declined significantly since January.
“This data shows that we are seeing a surge in the virus in populations that aren’t vaccinated yet,” said Dr. Stephen Leffler, president of the University of Vermont Medical Center.
He urged Burlingtonians to continue taking precautions: “We can’t let our guard down.”
The trend also tracks with case numbers reported this week at the University of Vermont. The university announced Monday that 93 students had tested positive over the previous seven days, shattering its record for the number of student cases in a single week.
The university also reported this week that four out of five samples had tested positive for the B.1.1.7 variant of the virus, a more contagious mutation that originated in the United Kingdom.
Weinberger called the news from the University of Vermont “concerning” on Wednesday, though he noted that the university’s overall test-positivity rate remained low, at less than 1%.
“It’s a situation we continue to monitor closely,” he said.
