If rest restaurants rent COVID super spreaders, the owners ask, where is the proof?

Scott Weiner, who runs 20 rest restaurants in Chicago, looks like a scapegoat in an epidemic.

Like other tors parters, it also sees a real possibility that the growing number of COVID-19 cases could force the city’s bars and restaurants to close completely. He also wanted to see evidence that his businesses, including Roots Handmade Pizza and West Town Bakery, were contributing to the problem.

“On top of poor data, you realize that people make decisions without really knowing,” said Weiner, co-owner of the Fifty / 500 Restaurant Group.

Government data on restaurant and bar safety is at the center of confusion as cases of coronavirus are on the rise. On Friday, a defensive government J.B. Pritzker has closed indoor restaurants in Dupage, Kane and Will counties, as well as other parts of the state.

This week, the governor’s office provided a chart showing that 2,300 confirmed coronavirus patients visited any restaurant or bar in the past two weeks in August and September. While those organizations make up the largest category visited by infected people over a two-month period at that location, statistics do not say for sure whether those people transmitted the virus to a particular bar or restaurant. State officials say one problem in compiling the data is how difficult it is to find the infection back to a specific location, according to statements by some local health departments.

While the state said its data is from Illinois, Chicago and Cook County. Reflected from Coun Counties, detailed statistics are not provided here publicly about the risks associated with bars and rest restaurants rents.

Part of the problem – or solutions?

“I don’t want to see the rest restaurant industry labeled as super spreaders because that’s not true,” said Adam Gavant, managing partner at TAO Chicago in River North. Like Wiener, he would also like to see proof. “I prefer to read it as far as data is concerned.”

The TAO, which has no outbreaks, needs masks, takes the temperature of consumers and sanitizers, Gavantere said, expecting more than 400 customers on Saturday.

“Our goal is to be part of the solution – not part of the problem,” he said.

More than 50 businesses, mostly bars and restaurants, have been temporarily closed in the city for violating COVID guidelines.

On Monday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot defended her decision late last month to lift the ban on bars. But on Wednesday, as cases in the city escalated, he enforced stricter rules, shortening restaurant hours, ordering liquor sales to be close to 10 a.m. and cut off at 9 p.m. Bars are banned from indoor seating.

When asked for numbers showing the risk, Dr Alison Arwadi, Lightfoot’s public health commissioner, said he did not have them in the city, but provided some fictitious evidence that people had gathered at the bar, which is being investigated for outrage.

Tyler L. Riviere / Sun-Times

Expert: The highest risk from your friends

Experts say restaurants and bars are not inherently dangerous places. , Lata, prolongs the interaction between face-to-face friends without a mask increases the likelihood of spreading.

“What’s happening is people are meeting with people they haven’t seen in a while,” said Dr. Howard Brown, medical director of Health’s 55th Street Clinic. Said John Snyder. “It’s not a random family that goes out for Sunday dinner. But you will see a lot of young people who are happening together and socializing. “

He said stretching kitchens carry more risk than working customers. Wearing masks and social distance can make establishments safe but it depends on the customers.

“The risks in bar and rest restaurant rentals are really who you’re going with,” Snyder added, adding that people in those settings are more likely to catch the virus from their contacts.

Outside of Chicago, Cook County is overseeing restaurants, said Dr. John H. Snyder, a senior medical officer at the Cook County Department of Public Health. “Everything is on the table,” he said, referring to the front restrictions.

But there are no data linking the case to restaurants in Cook County.

Dupage County health officials provide some of the most granular data available on dining and covid infections but only as a subset of total cases, which are more than 21,000 in the county. From March 1 to October 20, five viruses spread in Dupage County, leading to 22 cases of infection in dine-in restrooms. In those cases, less than 1 percent of the 3,135 epidemic outbreaks are defined as two or more infections in one place.

In Lake County, 5 percent of cases in the past month have been attributed to rest restaurant rent employees, while more than three quarters have been attributed to long-term care facilities, a health department spokesman said.

Asked if restaurants and bars are safe, the department replied: “If people observe proper social distance, wear face wear, wash their hands frequently and avoid touching their face in any setting, it significantly increases the likelihood of transmission.” Reduces. ”

Brett Chase’s report on the environment and public health is made possible by a grant from the Chicago Community Trust.