A Visit to Rehoboth & Gov Carney Comfortable with Moving Forward to Phase 1 on June 1st
Governor John Carney has been visiting locations around the state this Memorial Day and stopped in Lewes at the DNREC offices. Earlier he was in Rehoboth Beach and was impressed with what he saw – that people were on the boardwalk – most social distancing and wearing face masks. Even those on the beach were also following the rules as well – and even some wearing face masks. The Governor commented that what he saw from reports from Ocean City was not working particularly well there – with large crowds that were not spaced apart or wearing face masks.
Gov. Carney says he feels more comfortable with the decisions made to gradually roll into reopening and was happy to see what he saw in Rehoboth Beach and has been assured by the business community that they can reopen safely. This week we will continue to move forward into Phase 1 next Monday and towards the July 4th holiday weekend.
Delaware – and Sussex County has come a long way in the past 2 and a half months. The largest outbreak in the state was in central Sussex County through the poultry industry and a widespread testing effort of the poultry workers was started. In the beginning the coronavirus testing of thousands of poultry workers was returning with an infection rate of about 30% – today – as that wave of testing is ending – the infection rate is at about 10%.
One question is what many in the beach communities have been waiting for – when will short term rentals again be allowed in Delaware? Gov. Carney’s reply was that there would be an announcement during Tuesday’s press conference, which will likely be held at 1:45pm.
