While Wisconsin's "Safer at Home" extension is still in effect through May 26, Gov. Tony Evers' today slightly loosened the restrictions on some of the state's non-essential businesses. 

In an emergency order, signed by Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm and scheduled to be put into effect starting at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, April 29, Evers now allows non-essential businesses to do curbside drop-offs of goods and animals. Businesses including "dog groomers, small engine repair shops, upholstery businesses and others," as noted by a press release, as well as outdoor recreational rentals and automatic or self-service car washes, are now allowed to open – so long as they operate free of contact with customers via online or over-the-phone payments, enact proper disinfecting protocols and the tasks involved can be performed by one staff member. 

"No one wants to reopen our economy as much as I do, and we're working to do everything we can to make sure we can do so as soon as we safely and responsibly can. That's why today we announced a new order that, coupled with our Safer at Home order that went into effect last week, turns the dial a notch by allowing non-essential businesses to do more than they were able to do before," said Gov. Evers, in a press release. "This order means that every business across our state can do things like deliveries, mailings, curbside pick-up and drop-off, and it's an important step in making sure that while folks are staying safer at home, they can also continue to support small businesses across our state."

That means we still want those operations to be able to be performed by one staff person in a confined space, services must be paid for online or by phone, and customers can’t be inside the business or facility.

— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) April 27, 2020

This "turn of the dial" adds on to the loosened restrictions included in last week's "Safer at Home" extension, which included opening golf courses, OKing aesthetic or optional construction work as well as landscaping business – as long as performed by a single person – and allowing all curbside pick-up, including libraries for books as well as arts and crafts shops for mask-making materials.

To read the full emergency order and loosened rules for non-essential businesses, click here. And stay tuned to OnMilwaukee for more coronavirus updates.