BBURLINGAME, Calif. (KRON) -- With parts of the Bay Area now in the orange tier, restaurants can increase their indoor dining capacity to 50 percent.
But health experts caution not to let your guard down and to continue practicing COVID safety measures.
It has been a month since San Mateo County allowed indoor dining. We are still seeing fewer diners inside because they feel safer outdoors. With restrictions loosen up health experts have mixed opinions about eating inside a restaurant during the pandemic.
"I know these restaurants have been suffering so much and I know that people working in those restaurants have been suffering so much and I hate to say something that is not good for their business but I can only tell you that I look at the numbers every day," U.C. Berkeley Infectious Disease Expert Dr. John Swartzberg said.
You won't find Dr. Swartzberg dining inside a restaurant any time soon, but he understands the damage the pandemic has done to the restaurant industry.
And if you are comfortable eating inside...
"Keep the windows and doors open, that helps a great deal," Dr. Swartzberg said. "Depending on how the ventilation works in that particular room, if you have really good airflow with multiple air exchanges where the air is being exchanged many times an hour."
UCSF Infectious Disease Expert Monica Gandhi has different views.
"Inside at this point, especially in dining where masks have to be taken off are safe for the vaccinated," Dr. Gandhi said.
"I feel fine going inside with my parents who are visiting me who are 70 to 80 because we're all vaccinated but I would not go indoor dining if I was not vaccinated," Dr. Gandhi said.
Both health experts say it's important to maintain the public health measures.
"We have to have patience right now," Dr. Gandhi said. "Keep on our mask, keep on our distancing."
And that's exactly what Danielle Giannecchini is doing.
"I'm one vaccine down so I'm still getting my second one next week and once that happens everyone is thinking oh you're going to be fine whatever but I'm still going to take all my precautions wearing my mask and keeping my distance," she said.
Doctors want to remind people even after you are fully vaccinated it's important to continue to wear masks, take precautions - while the vaccine will protect you from getting severe COVID symptoms, you can still be a carrier of the virus and pass it on to someone more vulnerable.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/31pRS1V
No comments:
Post a Comment