Milwaukee Restaurants Could Return to 100 Percent Capacity

S. Kinnickinnic Avenue. Photo by Carl Baehr.

The Milwaukee Health Department will roll out a pilot program to allow restaurants to operate at 100 percent capacity if the establishments have an approved COVID-19 mitigation plan.

“We are working on developing instructions on how to do this,” said Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik during a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon. Under current restrictions, restaurants and bars are only allowed to operate at up to 25 percent of capacity.

Kowalik said the department would provide a template and sample of a risk mitigation plan on its website within the next week. Restaurants seeking to submit a plan will need to email cehadmin@milwaukee.gov with the name of the restaurant and “COVID 19 Risk Plan” in the subject line.

The pilot program would not apply to bars.

The Commissioner said it could take up to a week to review the plans. “We are very confident we can turn these around, but obviously we can’t give it to you instantly, there is going to be a little lag because we want to make sure it’s on point,” she said.

Restaurants will not be required to come up with a plan, and could instead wait until the city goes to phase four of its health order to increase their capacity to the maximum allowed. “Don’t feel like everyone has to come up with a plan, it depends on your circumstances,” said Kowalik.

Milwaukee health officials are expected to announce progress on reaching targets for testing, positive case rate and other pandemic response metrics later this week.