Outdoor Dining Outlawed in L.A. County—Restaurateurs Want to Know Why

After the L.A. County Department of Health's order to shut down outdoor on-site dining facilities, restaurant owners and other food service workers want to know why their service is under fire while retail and gyms are allowed to stay open at a reduced capacity. 

What data did the county Board of Supervisors consult when making this decision? Farley Elliott says that Los Angeles County, despite having a "fairly robust" contract-tracing program, has gathered data that are far from exhaustive and clean. The County has faced great difficulty in tracking cases with "10 million inhabitants, 31,000 restaurants, few mechanisms currently in place to limit individual travel, and no mandate to collect customer data at restaurants or points of retail," writes Elliott. 

According to county officials, it is estimated that up to 15% of COVID cases can be traced to "dining experience," Elliott reports. UCLA associate professor of community health sciences and epidemiology Shira Shafir indicates that according to the contact tracking data, outdoor dining could contribute to the spread of the virus. Officials point to risk in any activity that requires people to gather, and especially those that require the removal of face coverings. 

Elliot says that the county Board of Supervisors' decision to close outdoor dining has nothing to do with the causal data connecting specific activities to the spread of the virus. "Simply put, county officials agreed to shut down outdoor dining because coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have been rising dramatically over several weeks, and reducing the number of places where people gather — especially unmasked — is one of the levers of power available to them," opines Elliot.