Michigan health officials have linked at least 85 cases of coronavirus to crowds at an East Lansing bar after it was allowed to reopen.
The Ingham County Health Department called anyone who visited Harper’s Restaurant & Brew Pub between June 12 and 20 to self-isolate for 14 days and look for evidence.
“Given the number of cases in this outbreak, we consider this to be a higher risk exposure than a typical visit to a restaurant or bar,” Linda Vail, Ingham County Health Officer, said in a statement. “There are likely to be more unidentified COVID-19 infected people. We need help from people who went to Harper’s during the exposure dates so that we can contain the outbreak. We need everyone to be exposed to staying home.”
While the county first identified at least 34 cases linked to the bar last week, officials through Saturday officially increased that number to 85, NBC News reported.
As of last week, all identified cases were between the ages of 18 and 23, with predominantly mild symptoms, including four who were asymptomatic. None have been announced as hospitalized. The Hill has reached out to county officials to comment on whether that is still the case.
On June 22, the bar closed on its own to update its HVAC system and develop better social distancing strategies, NBC News reported. Health department officials determined that the bar had been complying with the state’s mandatory safety procedures related to capacity and space between tables.
In a statement, the bar said its main difficulty had been keeping its distance on the outside sidewalk.
“Our monitoring of the line on our stairs has been successful, but trying to get customers to follow our recommendations on the public sidewalk has been a challenge,” the statement said, according to NBC News.
With growing concern about bars as a vector of infection, Florida and Texas, which have experienced significant spikes in the virus in recent weeks, have reversed their reopening of bars, while the Governor of New York. Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Cuomo Democratic officials, governors push for a nationwide mask mandate as the administration defends the state-by-state approach on Sunday shows: the resurgence of the coronavirus dominates Cuomo: the Trump administration ‘in denial’ over the ‘coronavirus problem ‘ PLUS (D) has suggested that it may delay the reopening of dining establishments in New York City.
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