The Associated PressGov. Tate Reeves sports a "Mississippi Strong" face mask following his coronavirus news briefing in Jackson, Wednesday, July 8. Reeves let the state face covering order expire on Wednesday, but he still encourages their use. The masks continue to be a requirement in Meridian.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves lifted the state face covering requirement Wednesday afternoon, but don’t remove your masks yet in Meridian.

Mayor Percy Bland extended the city’s face mask requirement on Thursday through the end of October.

In Reeves’ new “Safe Recovery” executive order announced on Facebook, he said some social distancing restrictions would be eased following improvement of the state’s COVD-19 case numbers.

Among the relaxed restrictions are increased attendance allowed at outdoor K-12 extracurricular events such as football games to 50% of seating capacity. limiting group gatherings when you are unable to social distance to no more than 20 indoors and 100 outdoors, and requiring masks for schools and close contact businesses such as salons and barbershops.

“I have always tried to stress the important balance of this time: we cannot allow our system to collapse, and we should not use the heavy-hand of government more than it is justified,” Reeves said. “We have to tailor our actions to the current threat, and make sure that they do not go beyond what is reasonable.”

While masks aren’t required in the new state order, the governor encourages people in Mississippi to wear them and to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Mississippi State Department of Health guidelines for COVID-19.

Restrictions in the executive order include:

• Public and private social gatherings and recreational activities where social distancing is not possible are limited to groups of no more than 20 people in a single indoor space or groups of no more than 100 people in an outdoor space where individuals not in the same household are in close proximity (less than 6 feet) to each other. The limitation does not apply to religious entities, voting precincts, students in classrooms or gatherings governed by other capacity limitations.

Every person in Mississippi must wear a face covering, covering the nose and mouth, while inside a school building or classroom, or when outdoors on a school campus whenever it is not possible to maintain a minimum of 6 feet of social distancing from another person not in the same household. Exceptions include medical or behavioral conditions; communicating with someone who is hearing-impaired; persons eating or drinking; persons engaging in fitness centers or other sports activities.

Auditoriums and movie theaters must limit ticket sales to 50% of maximum seating capacity, provided a minimum of 6 feet of social distancing may be maintained between persons not in the same household.

• Outdoor and indoor arenas must limit number of guests to no greater than 25% of the maximum seating capacity.

The new order is in effect until 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11.

Earlier Wednesday, the Department of Health reported 552 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, with Lauderdale County having only one of them.

The state total increased to 90,462 and Lauderdale County’s total increased to 2,078 since the Department of Health began tracking the coronavirus in March.

The department reported 12 deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the state total to 2,969. Two of the deaths reported Wednesday occurred between Sept. 5 and Sept. 16 and were identified from death certificates.

One of the new deaths came from Clarke County, which has a total of 49 deaths since March.

Among the new cases Wednesday are 54 identified among residents in long-term-care facilities, where there are 121 ongoing outbreaks. Four deaths were reported among residents of long-term-care facilities.

Across East Mississippi, new cases were in single digits in each county. Clarke County reported one new case for a total of 611; Jasper County three new cases for a total of 584; Kemper County no new cases for a total of 291; Neshoba County two new cases for a total of 1,599; and Newton County three new cases for a total of 1,781.

The state presumes 89,737 people have recovered from COVID-19 since March.

Bianca Moorman contributed to this report.