Restaurants in certain counties can further expand their indoor dining capacity in yet another tweak to the state’s COVID dial announced Monday.

The dial is the rubric used to restrict counties to varying degrees depending on the presence of the virus there. The state’s been leaning on the dial for months, but changed it again in recent weeks to give further latitude to counties to avoid tighter COVID restrictions. As the overall COVID situation in Colorado has improved and plateaued, Gov. Jared Polis and others have begun to loosen up restrictions, though mask orders and other base-level changes remain in effect.

The change comes as states across the country begin to look beyond the pandemic. Some states — including neighboring Wyoming — have lifted mask orders, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have urged against lifting public health orders too soon. 

This latest change primarily affects restaurants. In a press release sent early Friday evening, the state Department of Public Health and Environment said that restaurants in level blue — the second-loosest restriction tier — could expand their capacity to 225 people without using a calculation to maintain distances. For level yellow — the third-loosest level — restaurants can similarly bump their capacity up to 150. Denver is currently in level yellow.

What’s more, restaurants who qualify under the 5 Star program and are also in level blue can add 50 more people to their allowable capacity. 

Last calls for alcohol were all moved back: For level blue counties, last call is now 2 a.m. Yellow is 1 a.m., orange is midnight, and red is 10 p.m. For each level, the time period has been pushed back. 

In guidance posted to the CDC’s website, researchers with the agency consider restaurants high-risk if certain conditions aren’t followed in restaurants: “On-site dining with indoor seating capacity reduced to allow tables to be spaced at least 6 feet apart.” 

Students playing musical instruments in schools can remove their masks to play, while maintaining social distancing.

Polis has for weeks began touting the beginning of the end of the pandemic, and he’s said that he doesn’t believe masks will be used by the “majority” of Coloradans come mid- to late summer. Recent changes to the dial all indicate Polis and the state are beginning to look to a post-pandemic future and are beginning to ease up restrictions that were placed in the fall, when there was an unprecedented spike in cases.

Indeed, this latest change gives more leeway to counties in order to stay in the lowest category. The new dial allows counties to stay in their current levels of restrictions, even if their numbers worsen. As long as they’re only slightly above the next level’s numbers and are able to bring them down within five days, the county won’t be punished.