Is that restaurant safe for dining in? Here’s how to tell amid COVID-19 in Kansas City
Kansas City restaurants are reopening their dining rooms on Friday, and public health officials and medical experts are worried.
With the coronavirus still infecting people in the metro, they say that dining inside a restaurant is risky for anyone of any age.
Here’s what to look for to tell how safe the restaurant might be:
▪ Is it following social distancing guidelines? Regulations for restaurants vary across the metro. Johnson County, where restaurants reopened Monday, requires tables to be kept six feet apart and parties limited to 10. In Kansas City, tables must be at least 10 feet apart.
▪ Are employees wearing masks? Servers in Kansas City are required to.
▪ Are employees screened before they work? If you get infected in a restaurant, it will most likely be from exposure to a worker or another customer, public health officials say. The Missouri Restaurant Association recommends that all staff members “undergo a visible screening and verbal health survey before each shift.” Ask about that.
▪ Is the restaurant using disposable or cleanable laminated menus?
▪ Is there hand sanitizer available for customers and staff?
▪ Was your table and chair cleaned and disinfected before you sat down? If you didn’t see it, ask.
▪ Does the restaurant display its safety measures at the entrance? Restaurants have been advised to post them.
▪ Can you dine outdoors? Public health officials say that’s safer than inside for now. Kansas City is considering allowing restaurants to create “street cafes,” moving tables and chairs out onto sidewalks or into parking lots.
▪ Has the restaurant reconfigured the waiting area so that customers aren’t bunched together?
“If you walk into a restaurant … and there’s a lot of people milling around together, then that’s not a good thing. If there’s a bar area where people are crowded together, that’s not a good thing,” said Craig Hedberg, an expert on foodborne illness and infectious disease outbreaks with the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.
“If the wait staff and customers are sort of randomly mixing in close proximity to each other and nobody is wearing masks, that’s not a good thing.”
People over 65 or who have underlying health conditions that put them at greater risk for dying from COVID-19 “absolutely shouldn’t go out,” says Kansas City’s health director, Rex Archer.
Get takeout if that’s an option offered, health officials advise.
.jpg)