Montgomery and Prince George’s counties will lift some COVID-19 restrictions on Friday at 5 p.m., but neither will align with the reopening plans Gov. Larry Hogan announced earlier in the week.

On Friday, the Montgomery County Council voted to reopen child care facilities , end curfews on alcohol sales can and restrictions on buffet services, increase limits on outdoor gatherings to 50 people and indoor gatherings to 25 people, and ramp up capacity at houses of worship to 50%.

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced Thursday afternoon that businesses, including restaurants, gyms, houses of worship, movie theaters, and reception halls will be able to reopen at 50% capacity. The limit on private indoor gatherings will rise to 20 people, and the limit on outdoor gatherings will increase to 50 people.

While more lenient than what is currently permitted, those changes are not as wide in scope as the state of Maryland’s more dramatic changes in restrictions, which also go into effect on Friday evening. Hogan announced an end to all capacity limits on houses of worship, casinos, nail salons and other businesses. Indoor and outdoor dining will still be required to follow six-foot distancing restrictions, and big indoor and outdoor venues like concert venues and sports arenas will be limited to 50% capacity.

In response to the state’s reopening announcement on Tuesday, some Montgomery County officials were critical.

“Gov. Hogan redoubles his efforts to drive cases up and MD’s ranking down,” County Council President Tom Hucker tweeted.

Will Jawando, a member of the Montgomery County City Council, called the decision to lift capacity restrictions “irresponsible” in an interview with Montgomery County Media, a nonprofit that contracts with Montgomery County.

“We will continue to look at the data, have the science guide us and take a measured approach, even though it’s not ideal that other people around us aren’t going to be doing that,” he said. “We will not follow the governor.”

Montgomery County officials also announced Friday that arts and entertainment facilities can open at 25% capacity and indoor dining at restaurants, fitness centers, bowling alleys, hair salons, pools, retail establishments, and recreation centers can increase from 25% to 50% capacity at the end of the month. Montgomery County Public Schools will also return students to hybrid in-person learning on Monday.

Coaches, parents of players, and owners of local indoor hockey and outdoor soccer complexes spoke out against the 50% capacity limitation prior to the council’s vote at their Friday meeting.

“The Maryland State Youth Soccer Association has successfully held training sessions and competitions with thousands of players collectively within Maryland over the past few months…and I can report that we have not had a single case of COVID transmission,” Greg Smith, executive director for the the association, testified at the meeting. “I ask that you remove the mask mandate while playing soccer outdoors and increase capacity limits at soccer fields.”

A new provision added to the bill would make it easier for youth sports to apply for waivers for sporting events with more than 50 people outdoors or 25 people indoors.

“There are nuances for each individual youth sport,” Vice Council Chair Gabriel Albornoz, the former director of the county’s department of recreation, told council members. “Until recently…we have not acknowledged that youth sports fall into a different category.”

The county’s positivity rate is back down to 2.9% which is identical to where it was at the end of October, according to county health department data. James Bridgers Jr., deputy county health officer, told council members Friday that Maryland and Florida are the only two states in the United States that have experienced all three variants–from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil–of the coronavirus. “We continue to monitor these [variants] as we go through our decision making process,” Bridgers said.

Alsobrooks characterized the Prince George’s reopening as “a measured approach,” one which takes into account the deep impacts of the virus on residents.

“We are listening to the science and the advice of our health experts,” Alsobrooks said in a press conference on Thursday. “We have not forgotten that Prince George’s County was the hardest hit jurisdiction in the state. We saw over the holidays how our trends can reverse, and infections can begin to rise again.”

Throughout the pandemic, Prince George’s County and Montgomery County have largely taken a more conservative strategy to reopening businesses than what the Hogan administration has approved. Asked to comment on the differences between the state’s current planned reopening and the Prince George’s approach, Alsobrooks emphasized that she has the flexibility to tailor her decision-making to the situation in the county.

“The governor has different considerations than I do. He has to look at the entire state and make decisions for the entire state,” she said. “I have the pleasure of making decisions for Prince George’s County.”

On Thursday, Prince George’s County Chief Administrative Officer George Askew said the county had made significant strides in its metrics since January, with hospitalizations, the COVID-19 positivity rate, and new case rate all trending downward. But he emphasized the importance of continued social distancing and mask-wearing among residents, and sounded a note of caution about the future.

“You don’t want to jump out of a plane and discard your parachute before you hit the ground,” Askew said. “We still don’t know what’s going to happen with all the variants. Fortunately we haven’t seen the kind of spread we’ve seen in other parts of the world.”

Alsobrooks and Askew also touted progress in the county’s vaccine rollout. More than 100,000 Prince Georgians have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and Askew said the county now has the capacity to give out as many as 15,000 shots per week, if given the supply.

“This week, we learned our health department went from 23rd in the state to number 3 in the state in first dose administration,” Askew said. “We did this in less than a month.”

More avenues to the vaccine will be opening for Prince George’s County residents in the coming weeks, Alsobrooks said, many of them through partnerships with the state and federal government.

They include a new state-run vaccine clinic at First Baptist Church of Glen Arden; 2,100 doses per week set aside for county residents at the state’s mass vaccination location at Six Flags; expanded federal pharmacy partnership locations; and an allocation of doses from the federal government for Greater Baden Medical Services, a federally qualified health center.

This story was updated with additional information about Montgomery County’s orders to lift some COVID-19 restrictions.

Debbie Truong contributed reporting.