Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry held a news conference Thursday from the Jacksonville Public Library where he gave updates on the city's Mortgage, Rent & Utility Relief Fund and the next steps for reopening the city.
Curry announced that city offices would start the reopening process next week as his "work from home" executive order is expected to be lifted on May 18.
"As it relates to city employees, our goal is we're working to get back next week were just putting in protocols we will only do it when we have the right protocols in place," Curry said. "In other words here is what you won't see next week you're not going to see wide-open doors where people can be coming and going without any protocols and safety practices."
Curry also gave an update on the city's Mortage, Rent & Utility Relief Fund and how it has been helping the community.
As of Thursday morning, Curry said they have distributed over $14.5 million to Jacksonville residents so that they can pay their bills and stay inside their homes.
Curry talked about the possibility of Jacksonville being ready for Phase 2 or maybe an expansion to what is allowed under Phase 1. At this time, gyms and fitness centers are still awaiting more input from Florida Governor DeSantis.
"We are still evaluating what exactly phase 2 will look like or maybe an expansion but some of the things you can expect at a minimum would be more capacity in restaurants and retail and the feedback I'm hearing on restaurants being able to do more outdoor seating because of the code that was waived this week in city council is positive... it's really positive," Curry said.
"It will be two months [Wednesday] since I've declared a state of emergency for Duval County... it's been a difficult two months," he said during a press conference earlier this week. "... [I am] removing the mandate, but hope employers will continue remote access."
This order is part of a number of executive orders that Curry enforced over the past eight weeks due to COVID-19. He said come Monday, all of these executive orders will be lifted, but to remember Florida is still under a statewide order issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Due to DeSantis' order, bars and nightclubs remain closed while hair salons, nail salons and barbershops were allowed to reopen with partial capacity on Monday.