The Springfield City Council voiced its support Thursday for removing 50 percent occupancy restrictions on local businesses starting April 16 amid consistently low COVID-19 case growth and growing percentages of vaccinated residents.
At a lunch meeting, interim health director Katie Towns said the community had already reached required thresholds of keeping the 7-day rolling daily case average below 40 and hospitalizations below 50 for at least 28 days.
But the community has yet to reach the required 25 percent of the population fully vaccinated to move in to the "yellow" phase of reopening.
Towns said she expected to reach that milestone by April 16th as the state continues to open up vaccine eligibility and Missouri State University hosts a mass immunization event for 10,000 people on April 8 and 9 with the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine.