Restaurants can re-open May 18, says governor
PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island restaurants will be allowed to begin limited outdoor dining on May 18, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo announced Monday.
The first phase of reopening the state’s economy’s started Saturday with the reopening of non-critical retail stores and other non-essential businesses. Now, Raimondo is focusing on restaurants, which have been crushed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Many restaurants have closed. Others just haven’t been able to figure out a way to make it work with takeout and delivery and those doing takeout and delivery are operating at a fraction of the business they used to do,’” Raimondo said at her State House briefing Monday. “It’s a top priority of mine to do all that we can to help this industry.”
“But like everything else it won’t be a flick of the switch,” she said. “Having said that, I’m pleased to say
that we worked through the weekend to figure out a way to allow restaurants to re-open outdoor dining in addition to the takeout, delivery and drive-through operations they currently have.”
Outdoor dining, she said, will come with strict guidelines, including having restau
rants screen customers for symptoms.
“We’re not requiring a particular kind of on-site screening,” she said. “It could include hanging a poster; asking customers to self-screen; or it could include the hostess asking or doing a temperature check. That’s up to the restaurant, but we don’t want anybody who feels sick to be in a restaurant.”
Raimondo said people who make a reservation at a restaurant will be reminded they they will be screened for symptoms when they arrive, and that they will also have to provide contact information for potential contact tracing purposes.
“In the event that someone tests positive after being at a particular restaurant, the Department of Health will be able to obtain a list of those who had a reservation there and could have come in contact with that infected person,”
she said. “This is going to be one more tool to do effective contact tracing.”
The other guidelines for outdoor dining to be posted on state’s website at www.reopeningri.com, include: Dining will be by reservation only.
Dining parties cannot exceed five people. Tables will be spaced at least eight feet apart or separated by barriers.
No more than 20 tables total in any particular outdoor space.
Menus will be one-timeuse paper menus or digital menus or chalkboard menus. Condiments and utensils will be either single-use or sanitized between uses. All high-traffic areas will be frequently cleaned and tables and chairs sanitized in between parties.
Self services food station like salad bars, buffets and
bar settings for eating will be prohibited. Cashless and contact-list payment methods will be encouraged, and pens and payment stations will be frequently cleaned.
No valet services will be allowed. Raimondo says her team is also working with municipalities to streamline the permit process for outdoor dining and liquor sales.
“We have heard from a lot of restaurateurs asking to not have to go through a lot of red tape in order to enable the outdoor dining,” she said. It’s a fair ask and we’re coming up with new ways for it to be very fast and streamlined.”
“What we have developed across state government is a very thoughtful, measured, and public health-focused approach for restaurants,” said Health Department Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott. “What underlies our guidance
for restaurants and for people who will be eating outdoors at restaurants are the same infection control principals that have been guiding us through this since day one.”
At the beginning of Monday’s briefing, Raimondo said there were eight new coronavirus-related deaths in Rhode Island and 176 new cases. There were 276 patients hospitalized as of yesterday with 73 patients in the ICU. Rhode Island now has a total of 11,450 cases and its virus-related death toll stands at 430.
The latest deaths were three persons in their 60s, two in their 70s, two in their 80s, and one in their 90s.
Raimondo said the new data shows new cases continuing to plateau and hospitalizations decline.
“Seven weeks ago when we were looking at our models of where we were and where we were going if we stayed on the trajectory we were on, we were looking at 8,000 to 9,000 hospitalizations and more than 4,000 deaths,” she said. “The picture today is very very different than that, thank God. Because we’ve really flattened the curve and built up our system now we’re in a very good position where we can start to slowly reopen our economy and feel confident about that.”
Raimondo, who lifted the state’s stay-at-home order on Saturday, said things went smoothly over the weekend. She said inspectors who visited hundreds of local businesses reported a face mask compliance rate of 95 percent for employees, and 75 for customers.
“Seventy-five percent isn’t good enough. We need to do better than that,” she said. “If you want to go out shopping you do have to wear your face mask.”