As the U.S. continues to report record-breaking COVID numbers, medical experts are trying desperately to appeal to Americans to stay away from high-risk locations and adhere to coronavirus precautions. Some areas, like Los Angeles, have even implemented new stay-at-home orders in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus. However, CNN's chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, MD, says not everything has to shut down because the majority of COVID transmission happens in just five places.
My weakness is my friendly neighborhood open air restaurant, where my safe social circle and I bring our own beverages, listen to live music and dance under the stars. Have always felt safe there when we had zero cases on the island, but 6 weeks ago we opened up to visitors, and our cases shot up quickly. This week, we shut travel down again, with a mandatory quarantine. But we still have a few travelers who arrived last week, still here.
Now I'm pondering whether I should go this Friday and Saturday, a couple of my favorite bands are playing... I really want to go, but I'm thinking the responsible thing would be sit this week out and see if our numbers go down, so we'll all be healthy next time they play. Boils down to how crowded it gets. Luckily, they stream it online, so if it looks or feels crowded when I get there, I can enjoy it from home with my takeout.
Weird thing is that here in my state, in order to help our economy, some of us who qualify have received a $500 gift card for restaurant purchases in the next 2 weeks. So, unless we all use it for takeout, the state is herding us all into the restaurants, the riskiest place to go.
Because I'm not crazy about eating alone in a restaurant, I will likely join with others to spend our cards. Boosts the economy with the local residents, who are largely covid-free.
The one small point is, that outside should be safer than a typical indoor restaurant.
@Fernapple Yep, and all the people at my table are known to me and haven't traveled recently. Lucky for me all my favorite restaurants are open air, and all my gatherings are socially distanced and outdoors. Lucky to live in one of the most covid-free places in the world, but I just have this one weakness of gathering with friends for music, even though a fairly safe environment from the virus.