It's still safest to avoid indoor dining -- even if more states are allowing it

It's still safest to avoid indoor dining -- even if more states are allowing it

 

Last Friday, Los Angeles said its restaurants could reopen for outdoor dining with restrictions and 50% capacity. Chicago reopened with rules that encourage physical distancing and masks. New York announced restaurants could reopen at 25% capacity just in time for Valentine's Day.   But even as more states allow restaurants to open their doors to indoor dining, experts still say the safest choice is takeout.   "I don't know why restaurants are reopening," said Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech who has been studying Covid-19 transmission. "I don't think anything's changed from the time the restaurants were closed. If anything, it's riskier because of the new variants that are more transmissible."   Marr said reduced capacity, improving ventilation and adding filtration will help bring down the risk, but none of that eliminates the risk that comes with dining out.   And remember, if you’re dining outdoors, you need to really be outdoors -- not in an enclosed structure that has been set up outdoors.