For the time being, Michigan restaurants are only allowed to accept takeout orders and provide outdoor dining. | Norma Mortenson/Pexels
For the time being, Michigan restaurants are only allowed to accept takeout orders and provide outdoor dining. | Norma Mortenson/Pexels
The Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association (MRLA) announced that if the state keeps implementing indoor dining restrictions on bars and restaurants, the COVID-19 super-spreaders will just go underground.
Association directors say people will meet to hold events in private homes instead of honoring the restrictions that are meant to keep them safe.
“We were hopeful that eight months into this pandemic that we could collectively recognize that there is an inherent and insatiable desire for humans to congregate, often over food,” Justin Winslow, president and CEO of MRLA, said on the association's website. “Shutting down dine-in service removes the ability to accommodate that natural human desire in a highly regulated, sanitized, capacity-limited and appropriately spaced setting in a restaurant. Instead it will drive that behavior to innumerable residential social gatherings over the holidays, which have already proven to be super-spreader environments.”
The MRLA presented data showing that in the previous two weeks, only five COVID-19 inquiries involved restaurant customers “despite serving millions of Michiganders each day."
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