Local restaurants can begin offering carryout again after New Hanover County's local restrictions lift this week. And talks are also in the works about a larger-scale reopening for the area’s economy, local leaders said during a news conference Monday.

New Hanover County is slated to lift what remains of its local restrictions Wednesday at 5 p.m. and is working to implement expanded COVID-19 testing this week, the county’s board of commissioners chair Julia Olson-Boseman said.

The county’s state of emergency will remain in place, she said.

The county implemented more strict countywide guidelines and restrictions, including those on specific merchants, in a stay-at-home order March 30. Its order ran along with a statewide order that limited nonessential travel and business. The county lifted some of the restrictions on April 13.

Statewide restrictions in Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home order, however, were extended last week and will remain in place until May 8.

“Lifting the county's local restrictions makes New Hanover County, our residents and businesses, directly in line with the governor’s stay-at-home order ... This means businesses can operate in line with the governor's order and the county’s order will not place any further restrictions," Olson-Boseman said. "The governor’s order outlines businesses that can be open and those that need to remain closed, specifically those that are close contact businesses."

When the county’s restrictions lift, restaurants will be able to begin offering carryout food service, in addition to its delivery and curbside pickup, she said. Restaurants, however, still must continue to comply with social distancing requirements, and dine-in service is still not permitted.

The county’s public gardens, basketball courts and volleyball courts will also reopen with the expiration of the county order, and social distancing should be followed, Olson-Boseman said.

While lifting the county’s order means there are no country restrictions on hotels, motels and short-term rentals, area beach towns still can set their own guidelines within their respective municipalities, she said, adding that Wrightsville, Carolina and Kure beaches have had some limited openings.

“Each of our beach towns will have their own orders in place to open and close the amenities that they feel are appropriate. The city of Wilmington also has that same ability to implement additional restrictions, they deem necessary,” Olson-Boseman said.

Meetings will be taking place at the city level to discuss the reopening of hotels, motels and short-term rentals, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said, adding that he hopes that the city and beach communities can come out with a joint statement to release information about what they will be doing.

"That was a big concern from a lot of our residents when this thing first started was, 'What are you going to do to slow down the people coming into the area?' And we did find from the data that we've seen so far that the vast majority of how that virus spread in our communities was through travel ... We will try to follow as much as we can the governor's orders and then whatever additional restrictions that we as individual cities want to put in place, then we'll work collectively with our local boards and form a plan of action," Saffo said.

And as restrictions are being lifted, talks about the further reopening area businesses on a much larger scale are also starting to take place.

An economic development team is being formed to work with area governments, businesses and health care providers to get a plan together, Saffo said.

That inititative involves the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, he said, and will help form a team to devise a plan as to what reopening the economy might look like moving forward.

Discussions could bring different business entities together, including banks, Saffo said, adding that there is a need to watch for what is happening at the local and federal level in getting SBA loans out.

“So those talks are starting to happen now," Saffo said. "And we’ll formulate some sort of an economic development team that will work with not only the city, but also the county, and the beach communities, and local businesses here in town about getting a game plan as to how we roll this out in concert with our local health teams, New Hanover Regional Medical Center, New Hanover Health Department.

“Obviously, health is the primary factor here. But as we get more comfortable with how we isolate this virus and where the outbreaks are taking place, and we can isolate individuals that have it, I think we’ll have much more confidence on how we’re going to open or reopen business in our community on a much greater scale,” Saffo said.

During the conference, Saffo announced an anonymous donation, one that could help ensure confidence when it is time to reopen the community.

The area has received 10,000 antibody testing kits and 5,000 N95 masks from an unnamed donor, Saffo said.

The antibody testing will be deployed over the coming weeks, first on those who have a lab-confirmed case of COVID-19 and then in a targeted approach to a more broad section of the community, county officials said.

In another testing initiative by New Hanover County, officials said the county has expanded its COVID-19 testing with a site that is expected to serve about 2,400 residents, roughly 1% of county residents.

The testing is being paid for by the county and will begin later this week at an open-air site in downtown Wilmington next to Cape Fear Community College’s Schwartz
Center, county officials said.

“This virus is still in our community, so I don't want people to mistake lifting some of these restrictions to mean that we're in the clear," Olson-Boseman said. "There's a lot of work ahead of us. There are a lot of unknowns. And there's still a great need to stay home unless you have to go out."