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With New York City indoor dining officially back—albeit at 25% capacity—Mayor Bill De Blasio took the chance to lead a press conference announcing a series of guidelines aimed at guaranteeing the safety of both eaters and restaurant workers across town.
"With indoor dining back at 25 percent, we want to focus on the right way to go about it," said the Mayor. "We also want to focus on the right way to protect the folks who work there, we owe it to them to protect their safety."
Presented by the city's health advisor Dr. Jay Varma, the instructions are split into three categories: before you go out, at the restaurant and after you dine.
According to the former grouping, New Yorkers are to limit their party size to four people or less and even consider "limiting it to only those in your family, pod or bubble;" to confirm that all fellow group diners don't feel any COVID-19-like symptoms and to encourage everyone to get tested before an outing.
At the restaurant, diners should make sure that all health and safety requirements are being followed (25% capacity, employees properly wearing face coverings, spaced out tables and no self-serve buffet), wear masks at all times except for when eating and drinking, wash hands before and after a meal and maintain healthy social distances from other patrons.
Finally, post restaurant visit, you should keep a record of "where you went, when you went and who you went with if you later test positive so you can report this to your contact tracer." The Mayor also thinks you should get tested at least once a month even if you don't display any symptoms.
To be clear, these are not state-sanctioned guidelines but (pretty smart) suggestions by the city that we'll be glad to abide by. In short: let's celebrate the restaurants that make New York special but let's do so safely.
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