ST. LOUIS — The Joint Board of Health and Hospitals in St. Louis has recommended capacity be reduced to 25% across all businesses, not just restaurants.
The board discussed the issue during a monthly meeting on Thursday.
To help reduce the spread of COVID-19, restaurants in the city have already reduced capacity to 50%. In St. Louis County, restaurants have been ordered to stop indoor dining altogether.
Dr. Will Ross, chair of the board, said it’s not fair to single out one industry when thinking about further restrictions.
“I don’t think it’s proper to target one particular industry, restaurants have been highlighted, and to impose restrictions on them disproportionate to other businesses,” he said. “I don’t think that’s fair and I don’t think the science supports that.”
However, Ross said he is concerned about where we are and what’s going to happen in the coming weeks. He presented the idea of reducing capacity across all businesses to 25% to help reduce the spread of the virus.
Ross said based on the data from the health department, restaurants in the city have been "really on top of this" and are adhering to restrictions. He said when doing contact racing, cases are not coming disproportionately from restaurants.
Ross and Dr. Fredrick Echols, the acting director of health for the City of St. Louis, also talked about how the majority of hospitalizations are coming from outside of the city and county.
“From an epidemiological standpoint, I find no reason to have an undue burden on restaurants,” Ross said. “Nonetheless, one out of five cases are coming back positive and the numbers are going to increase.”
After discussing and voting on the issue, Ross said the board didn’t have a quorum, so it plans to make an informal recommendation to the St. Louis Department of Health.
