CHEYENNE — The current COVID-19 Coronavirus public health orders expire on next week on Wednesday, September 30, and Governor Mark Gordon said the state can expect “significant changes”.

Current active cases of COVID-19 are at an all-time high, averaging 59 cases per day. As of Thursday afternoon, there are 864 active cases of COVID-19.

Though the numbers are not ideal, Governor Gordon said it is “not a surprise”. Despite the rising number of cases, however, Gordon is not interesting in adding more health orders.

“I am not interested in imposing additional health orders because we know that things are working, and that taking simple steps can help prevent transmission and protect our residents,” he said.

Therefore, the new health orders coming out next week will have modifications to allow more indoor seating in restaurants.

State Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist said they do not have specific numbers worked out quite yet, but that they are looking at how much seating they can allow indoors while maintaining safety.

“We do think there are ways to sit more people inside and still in a safe way without the need for restaurants to make big changes or modifications to their operations,” Dr. Harrist said.

Governor Gordon said the state is not seeing large number of infections occurring within restaurants, and that is why they believe this is an appropriate modification to the health orders. As the fall and winter seasons progress, outdoor seating will no longer be a viable option, so Gordon said they would like to lessen the burden on restaurants across the state.

More information on the updates to the public health orders will be available from the state in the coming days.