According to this, 5 restaurants in Carbondale got ticketed this week for allowing inside dining, although Mary Lou's is the only one cited in the story. Why single out restaurants and not Wal-mart, Lowe's etc?
Well, as I understand it, and if you know more about the subject than I, please correct me, when you go shopping at Wal-mart, you do not plan to stay there for a long period of time. You go in, shop, moving around as you do so, make your purchases and leave. When you go to a restaurant, bar or gym, you plan on staying there for an hour or two. It is a closed environment and a lot of them do not have great filtration systems. As you sit there or work out, if you are infected, you are breathing the virus into the air. While wearing a mask cuts down the movement significantly, it does not stop movement of the virus completely and, of course, when eating, you take the mask off to eat.
That is why places where we sit or stay for long periods of time are subject to stricter restrictions than other places. Outside seating mitigates the concentration of the virus and, of course, with take out and delivery, you do not have to worry about it at all.
Why is only Mary Lou's named and not the other restaurants? Even dining outside has its problems. 6 weeks ago a group of 4 without masks, dined six inches together outside the Neighborhood Co-Op violating social distancing rules. Why is there one law for a business that has been in existence for decades and not for others?
ReplyDeleteIt appears the city/county is only now getting serious about ticketing restaurants for violations. This is the first time I have heard of any restaurant in the area getting a ticket.
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