ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — St. Louis County is working with restaurants on a plan that would allow indoor dining to safely resume in early January, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page announced Monday morning.
Details are still being worked out and likely won’t be ready to be announced until next week, Page said.
The plan is being worked on by the St. Louis County Department of Public Health and a group of restaurants that have been working with the county. They hope to have details ready to announce next week so that restaurants can begin providing indoor dining by early next month, Page's office said.
"The plan will include new restrictions as proposed by the restaurant working group and our department of public health," Page explained.
The county executive said indoor dining will still carry risks of contracting and spreading the virus. He stressed the importance of community members and the restaurant industry in cooperating with the health orders that are in place. Following health orders will help allow "some form of indoor dining" to return next month, Page said.
Indoor dining has been banned in St. Louis County under the Safer at Home order that started on Nov. 17. Last Monday, the county extended the order for another two weeks, stretching past Christmas.
More information about the county’s public health orders is available on the St. Louis County health department’s website.
Earlier this month, the Missouri Court of Appeals sided with the county in a lawsuit filed by restaurants that challenged the ban. The owners of about 40 restaurants said St. Louis County Executive Sam Page showed no proof that COVID-19 was spreading at restaurants and that he lacked the authority to declare indoor dining illegal.
In all, Page's office said the appeals court is the sixth court to rule in favor of the county’s public health orders since the beginning of the pandemic.