The omicron variant of COVID-19 is causing cases to rise rapidly daily, making eating out to be a serious health risk.
Specifically in Los Angeles, the vaccination or mandate to eat indoors at restaurants hasn’t stopped the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant, and honestly is just getting started. Restaurants are still working to provide safe establishments for guests to eat out, with Los Angeles, CA implementing the vaccination and/or negative COVID test mandate to dine indoors, but it’s not enough to keep the cases of COVID-19 from rising in the county.
Restaurant owners aren’t sure what to do or even sure if dining out is a serious health risk or not. An infectious disease doctor, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong doesn’t recommend the elderly people with compromised immune systems or the unvaccinated to dine indoors especially in poorly ventilated establishments due to the time in which the variant has been known to linger. According to the LA Times, scientists believe the virus lingers for about an hour or two.
There isn’t much consistent messaging on how exactly to approach dining anymore. Eating in has become the unofficial mandate with folks choosing to stay home to avoid the spread of COVID-19. Eating out has been cautioned in the past two years with folks wanting to stay safe but in need of human contact and being outside.
With the end of the year approaching, most of these days are spent indoors with family. There is still a very real health risk if homes aren’t well ventilated, and patrons of family gatherings aren’t vaccinated and refuse to wear a mask.