Updated Sept. 4 at 5:19 p.m.

Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Anne Arundel counties will not be moving into Phase 3 with the rest of Maryland, county executives announced at briefings this week.

Montgomery County made their announcement on Wednesday while Prince George’s followed on Thursday.

On Tuesday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced the state would move into its third and final reopening phase on Friday.

While individual counties and cities are allowed to make their own determination of how and what to reopen, the decision caught Montgomery County by surprise, County Executive Marc Elrich said in a tweet on Tuesday. He says it did not receive advance notice of this announcement from the governor.

“I am disappointed because none of the elected officials in the state got consulted on this,” Elrich said at the briefing. “Nobody asked us what we know. What do we think? What are you hearing? What are you experiencing?”

Both Elrich and Dr. Travis Gayles, the county’s health officer and chief of public health services, declined to provide a timeline or any clarification on metrics that would determine when the county would move into Phase 3.

“We don’t operate on a timeline because if I have to stick to a timeline and the conditions aren’t right, then the question is ‘why didn’t you do it?’,” Elrich said. “That’s not how you make health-based decisions.”

On Friday, Gayles announced one slight adjustment to a Phase 2 guideline, which will now allow restaurants to host live music. Dancing will be prohibited in any restaurants with live performances.

In recent weeks, the county has allowed some previously shuttered businesses and activities — like bowling alleys, museums, and soccer fields — to resume operations. Phase 2 restrictions on entertainment venues and theaters will remain in place.

Case numbers have continued to slowly plateau in the county, which county officials mostly expected as reopening progressed. But a move to Phase 3 would mean more potential places for transmissions, something that officials worry would lead to an increase in case. They admit that they are being strict, particularly compared to the rest of the state.

“The policies in our county are probably the most restrictive [in the state],” Elrich said. “Not as restrictive as we could have been and should have been early on. Being the most restrictive is limited contact. Limited contact, we know, limits the virus.”

In Prince George’s, County Executive Angela Alsobrooks cited that 13 zip codes still have positivity rates of above 5%, a number that Hogan has continually cited as a milestone and a precursor for further reopening.

Since July 4, the county has seen a steady trend of more than 700 positive new cases per week, according to Dr. Ernest Carter with the Prince George’s County Health Department. At Thursday’s press conference, he said that while deaths have declined significantly from earlier this year, the county is still seeing between 6 to 15 deaths per week since July 4.

“We’re all trying to make it through this together and … we have communicated with the governor’s office,” Alsobrooks told reporters Thursday. “Has the communication always been perfect and seamless, no, but I think we’re all doing what we can to make it through this pandemic.”

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman also decided that his county would stay in Phase Two, citing concerns about reopening schools this fall.

“We need to get our schools open, and the State of Maryland has given us an achievable new case rate that makes it safe to do so,” Pittman said in a release Thursday. “We must lower our rate of spread to get there.”

While the county’s positivity rate sits at a 3.91% — well below the 5% threshold — county health officials say the case rate is increasing. That means the number of people testing positive every 7 days for the virus per 100,000 people has increased since late August.

The seven-day moving average case rate in Maryland has generally decreased over the last month. However, several notable spikes are of concern to both state and local officials. In Worcester County, where the popular beach vacation spot Ocean City is located, the positivity rate is more than double the state average.

“One of the things I’d love to know is how many people who got COVID had a vacation in Ocean City,” Elrich said. “We don’t exist in a vacuum. There’s no wall around Montgomery County … what happens someplace else around here, don’t stay someplace else.”

This story was updated to include announcements from Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties, and an update on one Phase 2 provision from Montgomery County.