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Many restaurants have turned to tents as an outdoor dining option as the coronavirus pandemic has forced them to stop offering indoor dining. But is it sure?
The safest option is to eat at home. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of adults tested for COVID-19 found that those who tested positive were about twice as likely as those who tested negative to have dined at a restaurant in the two weeks preceding their illness.
“Masks cannot be worn effectively while eating and drinking,” the researchers wrote.
For diners who choose to eat out, the CDC recommends wearing masks as much as possible, socially distancing themselves, and washing their hands when entering and leaving the restaurant.
(iStock)
OUTDOOR DINING BUBBLES ARE NOT AS SAFE AS YOU THINK, DOCTORS SAY
And the least risky option for restaurants is to limit food service to drive-thru, delivery, take-out and curbside pickup only, according to the CDC.
The CDC rates outdoor seating with reduced social distancing ability as “more risk” of spreading COVID-19, and dining indoors with a distance or outdoors without six feet between tables as “Higher risk”. Meals indoors without spacing in the “highest risk” category.
For diners who choose to eat out, the CDC recommends wearing masks as much as possible, socially distancing themselves, and washing their hands when entering and leaving the restaurant.
If tents are properly ventilated, they can be safer than eating indoors. The tents must have airflow so that droplets carrying COVID-19 cannot build up inside, the Wall Street Journal reported. And that doesn’t just mean windows. Lisa Brosseau, an exporter on respiratory protection and infectious diseases, told the Journal that a device must move air in and out of space.
Air circulation is also important for individual tents. (REUTERS / Jeenah Moon)
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Single table tents like igloos or bubbles can also help reduce the risk of transmission, if used correctly. Brosseau told the Journal they could protect diners from other people sitting nearby.
Craig Hedberg, a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, told The Associated Press that individual tents should not be shared by people who do not live together.
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Air circulation is also important for individual tents. In August, a Michelin-starred sushi restaurant in San Francisco had to remove about half of the plastic coating from its geodesic domes after local health officials objected to the lack of airflow.
In addition, the tents should be cleaned and left for 20 minutes between parties, Aubree Gordon, associate professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, told the AP.
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