Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
New Orleans allowed its restaurants to reopen with restrictions.
Partial restarts allowed for restaurants, tracks
NEW ORLEANS — Restaurants can reopen in New Orleans, a city famous for its cuisine, but they must take reservations and limit the number of diners. Auto and horse racing tracks in New York can resume competitions but without spectators.
Officials cautiously eased more restrictions Saturday on eateries, shops and outdoor venues as they tried to restart economies without triggering a surge in new coronavirus infections. But the reopenings came with new rules designed to curb the spread of the disease — another indication that the familiar ways of dining out or watching sporting events are gone.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said horse racing tracks and the Watkins Glen International auto track can reopen with “no crowds, no fans.”
The governor has allowed large parts of upstate New York to start reopening by allowing certain businesses such as construction to operate under safety guidelines. But most residents — particularly in hard-hit areas closer to New York City — remain under tight restrictions as communities try to reduce infection rates and amass enough testing and tracing to reopen in coming weeks or months.
New Orleans took its first steps to loosen restrictions that have been in place for two months, one day after the rest of Louisiana did the same.
The city is restricting buildings to 25 percent of capacity, like the rest of the state, but also requires restaurants, nail salons and other businesses to take customers by reservation. The city has capped the number of people allowed in houses of worship and movie theaters at fewer than 100.
Malls and retail stores can reopen, but casinos, video poker, live entertainment and bars are still closed.
Some restaurateurs planned to stick to takeout or stay closed all together.
Kirk Estopinal, one of the owners of Cane & Table in the French Quarter, planned to open Saturday. Guests are supposed to order their food when they make a reservation online and are asked to wear masks.
“We’re going to trial run what it is to operate in the new normal,” he said. “We’re looking at a restaurant experience that is almost touchless for our guests.”