Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich wants to reopen indoor dining starting Feb. 9, with restaurants limited to 25% capacity and diners only allowed to linger for an hour or less.

Elrich proposed the change in an executive order Tuesday evening. It must be approved by the County Council before going into effect. Indoor dining has been unavailable in the county since December 15.

Elrich pointed to COVID “case numbers trending downward” when announcing the order. While there has been a drop in coronavirus infections since a peak on Jan. 12, the risk of transmission is very high, according to the county health department. The mid-January caseload peaked at a seven day average of 49 cases per 100,000 residents, and is now down to 26 cases per 100,000. However, any number above 15 cases per 100,000 is considered very high risk.

Meanwhile, more transmissible variants of the coronavirus from the U.K. and South Africa have recently been detected in Maryland.

Earl Stoddard, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, discussed the executive order with County Council members Tuesday, and seemed to struggle to defend the idea of reopening indoor dining.

“From a public health perspective, it’s not a safe activity,” Stoddard said during a County Council meeting. But he added, “There has to be a degree of balancing, that we consider the economic impacts as well.”

Stoddard said he and his family would not be participating in indoor dining anytime soon. “Just because something is permitted does not mean it’s a good idea,” he said.

County Council Member Will Jawando said he would not be voting in favor of the order, which will likely come before the Council at the next session, on Feb. 9.

“I feel like I’m in like the twilight zone here,” Jawando said at the Council meeting. “It just seems totally backwards that we would say we’ve made a couple of weeks of progress and we’re going to open indoor dining.”

Elsewhere in the region, D.C. reopened indoor dining on Jan. 22, after a month-long closure. Prince George’s County allowed restaurants to reopen on Jan. 29. In Virginia, indoor dining remained open throughout the recent spike in COVID-19 cases.

In December, the Restaurant Association of Maryland filed suit against Montgomery County and Prince George’s County over indoor dining bans, arguing there was insufficient evidence of a link between indoor dining and COVID-19 transmission.