COVID-19 Positivity Rates Appear to Be Spiking in Many States That Reopened Bars

Michael Neff sensed what was about to happen. It was late March, and Texas had surpassed 1,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. He braced as governor Greg Abbott announced that many businesses—including gyms, restaurants and bars—would be prohibited from serving customers indoors. The Cottonmouth Club, his Houston cocktail bar, would have to close. “We were resigned to the fact that we might not make it,” Neff says of his business. “We took a day to be really, really depressed and I locked myself in the bar and didn’t answer the phone.” Since then, Neff has tried to bring the Cottonmouth Club experience online, by livestreaming a nightly bar-themed variety show with karaoke and cocktail-themed discussions. Customers can show support by paying into a virtual tip jar. When the governor allowed bars to reopen at 25% capacity on May 22, Neff reconfigured the furniture, set up a reservation system and designed contactless menus. The duty to keep customers and staff as safe as possible weighed on him. “You’re always having to trade some version of safety with some version of commerce,” he says. “It was hard to promote as vigorously as possible when, in your heart, you’re totally okay if only 10 people show up.” Over the last five months, states and municipalities have issued a hodgepodge of lockdown and quarantine measures, many of which shut down bars, or limited them to take-out-only operations. The orders...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 UnitedWeRise20Disaster Source Type: news