How Safe Is Eating At A Restaurant During The COVID-19 Pandemic? - HuffPost

And as quarantine fatigue sets in, you probably miss dining at your favorite restaurant or drinking at your local bar.

While many have implemented safety measures ― limited capacity, enhanced cleaning, temperature checks and social distancing ― other people remain the biggest threat, Hedberg said.

“You’re enjoying the company of your friends, you’re eating, you’re chatting, you’re drinking ― and, while you’re doing that, you and the people around you are potentially putting virus out into the air,” Hedberg explained.

And, even if they don’t know it, they can spread it to others, said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

Benjamin said these systems likely “help some,” though it’s hard to say how much, since the systems need time to fully filter the air to be effective.

Along with spaced-out seating, some restaurants have added partitions between tables, which Hedberg said could prevent the transmission of larger droplets.

The CDC considers outdoor dining less risky than eating inside.

“Within an outdoor environment, the virus can disperse, and so it’s not the recirculation of the same air,” explained Kristen Gibson, associate professor of food safety and microbiology, and a researcher at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Even with social distancing, enclosed outdoor dining ― whether it’s in an igloo, tent or bubble ― restricts airflow and essentially creates the same risky situation that exists with indoor dining.

“If you’re physically outside, but you put a tent over the dining space that effectively seals all that air in, then you’re really not outside at all,” Hedberg said.

“You’re sharing the common air with everybody else who’s in that tent, then it’s really not different from being indoors.”.

But, sharing a bathroom could be risky, Hedberg said.

With coronavirus cases surging and winter setting in, Benjamin said it could be another rough few months for restaurants and their employees.

“You can still support them even if you don’t go in and sit down,” Benjamin said.