Indiana Slowly Lifts Lockdown

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INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana has taken another cautious step out of lockdown, but Governor Holcomb is warning that doesn’t mean letting your guard down:

Restaurants in all but four counties can resume dine-in service, and a stay-home order has been lifted for all of Lake County except Gary. The city has its own order in place through Friday. But Holcomb says businesses shouldn’t reopen until they feel safe doing so.

And he says even if Indiana meets his goal of lifting all restrictions on the Fourth of July, people should still be social distancing and being conscientious about hand washing. He says the dangers of the coronavirus won’t disappear completely for a long time.

Holcomb’s legal counsel Joe Heerens says the state issued its first cease-and-desist order last week to a Benton County business which was defying the state’s shutdown order. He says the state has fielded more than a thousand complaints from people who believed nonessential businesses had reopened ahead of schedule, Most of those turned out to be in compliance with the lockdown order. Heerens says about 140 businesses brought their businesses into compliance after a verbal warning.