Mayor Walsh Eats Lunch In Chinatown In Effort To Ease Coronavirus Fears

BOSTON — While there has only been one confirmed case of coronavirus in Massachusetts, fears of the virus have hurt restaurants in Chinatown. On Tuesday, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh spent the afternoon in the neighborhood and sat down for lunch at Jade Garden to help ease the public’s fears.

“It’s safe to come to Chinatown,” Walsh said. “We want to make sure we continue to support our businesses here in Chinatown. This is their bread and butter and if they are losing business, they will have to shut doors.”

Jade Garden manager Jack Cao said it has been a tough few weeks. “It’s harder. We’ve tried to do whatever we can to fight it…Like the mayor said, this affects not just the businesses, this affects the employees and the family. It’s like a chain reaction.”

Since the coronavirus outbreak, many local restaurants in Chinatown say they’ve seen their business decrease by more than 50 percent. They compare it to a major snowstorm when everything gets shut down, only this just seems to linger on.

Read more at CBS Boston