Churches in Madison and Dane County can now follow the same rules as any other local business regarding in-person attendance after the Madison Catholic Diocese challenged as unconstitutional earlier this week the limitations for places of worship in the local coronavirus reopening plan.
Also, Public Health Madison and Dane County officials said Friday the county will not move to the next phase of reopening businesses and other entities to 50% capacity before June 12, and even if data looks good, the shift likely won’t happen for a few days to give time to prepare.
City and county officials announced Friday they are loosening a public health order to let churches have services up to 25% capacity. The previous order — put in place to reduce the risk of an outbreak of COVID-19 where people gather in large numbers — let churches have as many services as they wanted, but required they be capped at just 50 worshipers per service.