As covid-19 continues to spread and diners return, restaurant workers are getting sick.
In St. Petersburg, Fla., Pete Boland spent last weekend trying to secure scarce slots for his 60 employees to get tested for covid-19. On Friday night, he had shut down his popular downtown restaurant, the Galley, after he learned several workers tested positive for the virus.
From Phoenix to Myrtle Beach, Houston to Orlando, restaurants — most of which were only recently given the go-ahead to welcome diners back in their doors — are closing again. This time, it’s not because owners fear that someone in their midst might catch the coronavirus — it’s because they know that they already have.
“It’s a respected group, and they’re trying to figure out how to set an example without much direction from government,” she says. “It’s the Wild West out here.”Similarly, Boland said he consulted sources that included the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the St. Petersburg mayor’s office, but ultimately, he had to decide how to handle sick employees himself, along with his staff. “There is no playbook,” he said.
“There’s a lot of ‘I told you so,’ which is unfortunate. It’s like people were rooting for something to prove this wrong,” he says of the initial reopening last month.News of outbreaks has left many restaurant workers nervous, fearing both the prospect of catching the virus from a co-worker and lost wages and tips if their employer shuts down.
Meanwhile, many customers have mixed feelings: Some say hearing that a restaurant has temporarily closed to address a problem makes them feel more confident about how seriously establishments are taking safety, while others see it as more evidence that it’s too soon to go back to dining in restaurants.
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