Masked waiters, half-empty dining rooms, and mobile ordering may all be part of the new reality when restaurants open their doors again
InIn a press conference this week to discuss the gradual reopening of public spaces in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco restaurateur, referred to himself as “someone, like yourself, that looks forward to going back out and having dinner.” But when California’s restaurants do reopen — minus an estimated 30 percent that could permanently close during the COVID-19 crisis, according to the state’s restaurant lobby — Newsom’s regular table might not look like it used to.
“You may be having dinner with a waiter wearing gloves,” suggested the governor, drawing on previous remarks made by California public health director Dr. Sonia Angell. “Maybe a face mask, a dinner where the menu is disposable, where the tables, half of the tables in that restaurant no longer appear, where your temperature is checked before you walk into the establishment.”
The message to restaurant operators and patrons: Don’t expect a grand reopening. A rolling soft opening might be more like it.
In order for the public to return to spaces like bars and restaurants before a vaccine for the novel coronavirus is available, which could be more than a year, public health experts say there are some major prerequisites for safety. Those include expanded capacity for COVID-19 testing, perhaps new antibody tests to show who has previously been infected, and a system of contact tracing (a process of identifying who may have been exposed to the virus) by either manual or digital methods.
Last night, the White House released “Guidelines for Opening America Again,” which included its own proposed criteria for states to reopen: a two-week downward trajectory of positive tests and flu-like and COVID-19-like symptoms reported, hospital capacity to treat all patients without crisis care, and “robust testing” for health care workers including “emerging antibody tests.” But according to the CDC, its own evaluation of antibody tests won’t be completed until “late April.”
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23 comments:
Now we live in a Communist Country.
Eating out is not a necessity, it is a luxury that Americans indulge in because they are lazy. I can't believe our economy is so reliant on eating out and most of the people that work in the kitchen are illegal immigrants living rent free with Benifits.Americans,what have we let our government turn the USA into???
I dunno, who are the gloves protecting? Not you but the waiter as he uses the gloves to bounce from table to table spreading germs
I cancelled a doctor appt. He had a mask. I did not. So I did not feel I was protected since the mask only protected him since he did not change it in between each patient that was breathing on it
Has anyone taken a moment to think about all this?
Disposable menus is one of the best ideas I’ve heard of in a long,long time!
Yes 12:36, it is absolutely impossible to protect yourself or others from this. One can change gloves all they want and mask too for that matter, but you are going to touch both while changing them. Is someone going to change gloves for every single task they do? Who goes to get their mail from their rural mailbox with gloves on? Who opens their letters with gloves on? Who writes checks and pays their bills with gloves on? Now think about all the other task we do in a normal day. It crazy to think you will never be exposed by wearing something over your mouth, nose, and hands. All these ultra health safety precautions we are being forced to do is just killing the best economy in the world. Everybody and I mean everybody will have their chance to live or die with the virus. Wash your hands correctly and often, keep them out of your mouth fingernail biters, and you will probably survive if you are healthy.
When Democrats decided to add an additional $600.00 per week to unemployment for 16 weeks I knew it was a ploy by Democrats to destroy Trump's unemployment numbers. Wait staff at restaurants are making more money unemployed than when working and now refused to come back to work. It's true. I only hope that if you are on unemployment and refuse a job offer within reason, of course, that you are cut off unemployment. It is not a hand out. It is to tie you over until you get your next working pay check. Don't let the Democrats destroy Tump and America. 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
"Eating out is not a necessity, it is a luxury..."
Tell that to truck drivers, fire fighters, police officers and anyone else who is forced to be on the road for long periods.
Eating in a restaurant but don't have money for mortgage or rent? Maybe I'm the crazy one or behind the times but not on my bills
Carry out and delivery is doing just fine. Cut out dining rooms. They just slow down production.
I go to the mail box with a disinfectant wipe, wipe off the mail before I open it, throw away the junk before I open it. I don't need gloves handling my check book & pen, and I use a sponge to wet envelopes & stamps. I'm sure I miss a lot of things but I get as many I can think of.
Pack a lunch people we all use too our wives got up at 5 am when we did cooked our breakfast and packed our lunch boxes and filled our thermos's with hot coffee. There was no Dunkin Doughnuts or McDonald's or even places to go for lunch. Going out to dinner was a very rare and special occasion that you actually put on more than sweat pants to partake in and usually reminded you have better cooks in your own home. Englishes had Diners around here a bucket of Chicken was a rare treat that again was not as good as what you could get at home. You could get a good Burger here and there. Remember H&J's drive in ? There was a Burger Chef and maybe a Dairy Queen no Pizza until Pappy's and then Ponzetti's . Again these were rare treats for working people with mortgages and young families. You went to the beach you took and army blanket and a picknick basket and your surf fishing pole. Not all this nonsense of umbrellas and coolers and pop up tents. If you were lucky you were Catholic and the church dinners proffered a great ethnically diverse variety of food Italian,Irish,Polish,Hungarian at that time to local white washed corn fed Baptists and Methodist's thought we were invaders in their white bread American dream. It's before the economy depended on people going out and consuming unconditionally. We borrowed humbly we worked paid back and saved and built lives had books in our homes and not gadgets and sacrificed ourselves to see that our children had better lives. Kept our mouths shut and opinions to ourselves and our noses to the grindstone. No one ever talked about politics.There was mutual respect and your fortitude was in the BANK. Ok maybe we made small talk about the weather. Our goals really have not changed much they are just entangled with divisional distractions.
I am a truck driver and I wrote that post and I've been packing my food since the day I got my first job and cooking my own meals and very rarely eat out
America will go back to like it was in the 1930's 40's. Eating out was rare and not often so there were very few places. Food service providers like Sysco have already forecasted 3 out of 10 restaurants will reopen, the rest are going to just be a sad memory.
Gimme a beer at the bar. I've had the flu; 36 hours at 100 degrees, 66 years old. Back to work!
And don't forget, when tax time comes all those $600 deposits will be taxed.
Do you wipe the contents inside the envelope 4:18? This really is impossible to avoid. The only ones truly safe right now are the astronauts and cosmonauts living in the ISS, and they will be getting supplies from earth soon, thus possibly contaminating that.
4:38 I was with you 100% until you had to throw in that catholic snip. To be truly honest, I feel very fortunate not being brought up catholic, and not feeling guilty about being molested by some quay priest. Other than that you had a very nice post.
That's great if you drive local. If you drive SBY to south Florida and return it's a little different. Most of us have a hard time even finding an open restroom to take a dump.
6:04
What?
You had the flu for 36 hours and a fever of 100?
Is that right?
Now you want a beer?
203 you actually believe unemployment benefits, nit the closures of businesses across the country, are what led tonhigh UE numbers? You cant get any dumber that this
My wife and I like eating out ..and buddy .. NEITHER of us are LAZY ! ..We work our butts off. ...so That is incorrect !
I wouldn't use a local restroom if you paid me. I do like the Bears do I go in the woods
And . . . Then he is going back to work.
Absolutely hilarious!
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