Coronavirus: Are Restaurants Safe For Dine-In? No, They Are Not.

Governor Ron DeSantis announced today that Florida will re-open starting on Monday, May 4th starting with a 25% opening for restaurants and retail businesses. This begs the question, are restaurants safe for dine-in? The simple answer is no - they are not.

A CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) study of a restaurant in China shows how one person in a restaurant infected 9 people nearby including 4 people at their table and 5 people around the restaurant. The virus was spread around the restaurant through air-conditioning.

Unfortunately, social distancing can't protect you inside a closed environment. Similar studies have shown how coronavirus spreads in buses, offices, airplanes, and other enclosed spaces quite well.

Some have suggested temperature checks for restaurants and while that might help to stop symptomatic carriers, it is already widely known that most people carrying COVID-19 actually show no symptoms at all and feel fine. It is possible for an asymptomatic carrier to pass the virus to you and your family while dining inside a restaurant.

The most common thing people will say is what's the difference between a restaurant and say the grocery store? The main thing about dining in a restaurant is that you normally will sit somewhere for an hour or longer increasing your risk of exposure. Although it is true that you risk exposure inside of a grocery store, you will be moving along to get your goods and leave which is very different from a restaurant.

Even despite this, there are numerous outbreaks at grocery stores around Tampa Bay and Florida itself. I find it truly hard to believe that restaurants will also not be a breeding ground for the virus with over 30,000 cases now confirmed in Florida despite limited testing of only around 1% of the population.

Many restaurants groups and businesses offered ideas during Re-Open Florida Task Force meetings about how to create safety for employees and customers as well as boost confidence, but Governor DeSantis did not specify how those will work in his order today except that social distancing should be maintained and that businesses who violate it will face fines and be charged with crimes.

The CDC recommends 14 days of continued declines in cases or positive percentages before moving to Phase 1 of the opening of a state, but Governor DeSantis is clearly not following that since our cases are at best flat thanks to the stay-at-home order and testing continues to be a problem.

Please continue to social distance and stay at home if possible. The virus is far from gone, we just had hundreds of new cases added today and over 1,200 people have died in Florida so far. Support your local restaurants with take-out, delivery, and catering if possible.

It's painful that we cannot support the places we love and dine-in without putting our own life and those we love in danger, but that is the reality that we face.

Please value your life and try to stay alive during this very difficult time.