Mayor Brandon Scott said Tuesday he may update citywide restrictions on dining and non-mask wearing activities at the end of this week after his team reviews post-holidays COVID-19 data.
The city is in its fourth week of indoor and outdoor restaurant and bar closures, which Scott announced on his first full day in office. He also capped retail and religious institutions, gyms, malls and museums at 25% of capacity.
Scott said data such as hospitalizations, deaths and new infections will be the sole factor behind any change to the current restrictions.
“We are looking at the information coming out of the New Year’s holiday as we saw spikes around the holidays. That’s what will guide our decision, nothing else,” the Democrat said at a news conference.
He added that business owners will receive a full week’s notice before any restrictions are changed.
The city has seen a 19% decrease in new infections since the restrictions were introduced, Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa said. But, she added, that drop does not reflect the entire holiday period, where people may have spent time with those outside of their households.
Mayor Scot in consideration on opening restaurants and bars I hope you are looking at the data. It seems to me we have no definitive data to indicaate that restaurants and bars are the point of contact. If we are keeping contact information where is it showing that people are contacting COVID. It seems to me we should be analyzing the contact data and determining where the contacts are coming from. It would be beneficial to make sure that it is the restaurants and bars as the point of contact because if it it not, it would be sad that they are carrying unnecessary financial burdens. We have heard nothing about the contact data…..
The data is right here Salle. Mayor closes restaurants and cases drop. Other counties leave restaurants open and cases rise. Nothing more to analyze. Thanks to our mayor for standing up to the restaurant lobby and saving lives.
Salle, it has been known for at least a hundred years that viruses like this spread at restaurants. While waiting to collect unnecessary data to confirm this common sense knowledge, hundreds more people would die, way more than die in this city even due to homicide. Restaurants need to remain closed to protect human life.
Furthermore there have already been enough scientific studies supported with data to conclude that restaurants spread the virus and should remain closed. Here they are for your reading. You can find them on google.
1. “Community and Close Contact Exposures Associated with COVID-19 Among Symptomatic Adults ≥18 Years in 11 Outpatient Health Care Facilities” July 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:1258–1264
2. “Evidence of Long-Distance Droplet Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by Direct Air Flow in a Restaurant in Korea” J Korean Med Sci. 2020 Nov 30;35(46):e415.
3. “COVID-19 Outbreak Associated with Air Conditioning in Restaurant, Guangzhou, China, 2020” Emerg Infect Dis. 2020;26(7):1628-1631.
The initial spread is happening at restaurants and retail locations and the is how the virus makes it way into households (which people can’t isolate from and close, unlike restaurants) where it can spread even more. Thanks for doing what I said necessary mayor.