BENICIA, Calif. (KRON) — At The Loft Wine Bar and Restaurant in Benicia, the chairs are still stacked up on top of the tables inside the restaurant. That’s because Solano County is among those the state has shutdown for indoor dining due to concerns over COVID-19.
“Scared, really scared. We are watching restaurants go out of business in record numbers,” Jason Diavatis said. “I have never seen so many closures.”
The reason for the closure of indoor dining in Solano County is due to an uptick in COVID-19 hospitalization.
“We have had a doubling in our hospitalizations,” Bela T. Matyas said. “We have 15-20 people a day hospitalized and in the last few days we have seen 38 to 41.”
But Solano County’s health officer says that increase hospitalizations and cases is not due to indoor activities, quite the contrary.
“The reason we are seeing the surge is mostly because of people having family gatherings and social gatherings on the weekend,” Matyas said. “And we are also seeing a sizable outbreaks among migrant farmworkers.”
And the health officer says he isn’t sure it will have much impact on the numbers unless these social activities stop.
Back at the Loft Wine Bar and Restaurant, business has been good since indoor dining reopened six weeks ago. Now they will have to survive with dining on the patio.
“We have more tables outside than inside but it will absolutely impact us negatively,” Diavatis said.
The health office says bringing down the numbers relies on how people behave, if they wash their hands, wear their masks and social distance.
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