States impose curfews on bars and restaurants as Covid-19 cases soar

Along with anecdotal reports that as the evenings lengthen, an older group of rule-abiding diners are replaced by younger, more rebellious – and often more drunken patrons – there is empirical evidence to justify the covers. – lights. In Minnesota, public health officials found that among people who tested positive for Covid-19 and who visited a restaurant, those who visited after 9 p.m. were twice as likely to be part of an outbreak cluster. .

Do curfews work?

For some epidemiologists, setting cutoff times ignores the fact that the coronavirus does not obey curfews. But they approve of any tool that helps slow the spread.

“It’s a half measure and maybe less than half a measure, but it’s better than no measure at all,” said Raymond Niaura, acting director of the New York Department of Epidemiology. University School of Global Health.

The benefit of curfews may not come primarily from targeting late night revelers, but from reducing the number of customers in restaurants and bars. “Their effect is to reduce the time that will allow people to assemble,” said Stephen Kissler, a researcher at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

“If we are in the hot zone as we are now, where there are so many infections, I would feel quite uncomfortable even being in a restaurant, especially if it was at full capacity,” did he declare.

For people who frequent bars and restaurants, curfews offer additional protection, Fauci said. “If you look at what happens on entering the party, people have a few drinks, they relax a bit more, they start to take off the masks if they are wearing masks, they let their guard down,” he said. he says.

Strains on restaurants

Curfews and closures are frustrating for many restaurateurs and tavern owners who struggled through a series of spring closings and enforced masks and distancing rules and aggressively sanitized their tables and bathrooms.

“We had no outbreaks during the time we were open,” said Sean Kenyon, who owns three restaurants and bars in Denver. “We knew there would be a second wave, but we believed society would be better equipped and better informed to deal with it.”

Kenyon said late-night bargos are only a problem for establishments that don’t strictly enforce their rules, which he added takes effort given the return of customers who don’t want to wear masks when entering. When he worked on ID verification he said, “The vitriol that we have been spitting on us for six months is incredible.”

Restaurant owners say infections transmitted by their establishments are eclipsed in numbers by the transmissions that take place in gathering places. “In Minnesota, it’s a small percentage coming from restaurants and bars if you look at contact tracing,” said David Benowitz, chief operating officer at Craft & Crew, which has five locations in and around the cities. binoculars.

Reflecting how leaders are struggling to keep pace with the coronavirus, even before Minnesota’s restaurant and bar curfew could go into effect, it was replaced with a complete ban on all meals and drinks inside these establishments.

With curfews and closures, restaurants have reopened their spring playbooks for alfresco dining and take out. Nevertheless, they will suffer an economic blow. Benowitz said he had to lay off 140 people from his workforce of 200.

“We are constantly pivoting,” Benowitz said. “If you can’t change this environment in no time, you won’t be able to be successful.”