Is it safe to go to restaurants as COVID-19 delta variant spreads? How to assess the risk

After a long stretch of serving sushi to go, Lori Hashimoto's restaurant Hana Japanese Eatery reopened for dine-in service in late May. Since then, she's required masks for entry, asked customers to sanitize their hands, spaced out tables and limited capacity at her Phoenix restaurant on 7th Avenue.

She isn't required to do any of these things, but many of her customers visited Hana for their first meal out during the pandemic because they had confidence in the safety measures she takes, she said.

In Arizona, in accordance with state regulations, some restaurants have been operating at full capacity with a sense of pre-pandemic normalcy since Gov. Doug Ducey lifted restrictions in early March. 

As the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19 spreads, some restaurants and bars are ramping up safety measures. Some are even requiring proof of vaccination to dine indoors.

"People were hoping we were getting back to normal," Hashimoto says. "But now there's a heightened awareness and people are being cautious."

Is it safe to go to a restaurant that is fully open? Should people seek out places that require vaccinations? Do those Plexiglas partitions actually help? Here's what experts are saying about dining out during the spread of delta.

Is it safe to eat at restaurants right now?

When deciding whether or not to eat at a restaurant, many factors determine the risk. 

High levels of community spread, a category that currently engulfs almost the entire state of Arizona, puts everyone at some risk, though unvaccinated people not wearing a mask face the most serious risks.

"They have no protection against the virus," says Dr. Farshad Fani Marvasti, an associate professor and director of public health, prevention and health promotion at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix.

Vaccinated people have a higher level of protection, but still face some risks. 

Vaccines have proven highly effective against severe outcomes from COVID-19, including hospitalization and death; however, breakthrough infections, where vaccinated people get COVID-19, are on the rise.

Vaccinated people who get COVID-19 may have mild or no symptoms. But they can suffer from what's known as long COVID-19, Marvasti says, when people develop long-term symptoms from the disease. 

Is it safe for parents with unvaccinated children to dine at restaurants?

Another thing to consider is who you come in close contact with. Children under 12 years old cannot get vaccinations. So parents who go out to eat could potentially bring it home to their unvaccinated kids.

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The risk posed to other family members is something else to think about. Hashimoto explains that she lives with a family member who has survived cancer three times. 

"I don't want to even bring the flu home," she says. Her co-workers and employees also have at-risk family members and young children to think about, she says. 

"Plus the majority of my Sunday business is families. We have a lot of kids in the restaurant who are under 15 or 12," Hashimoto says. "We want to be as careful as possible."

Is outdoor dining safer than indoor dining?

For a few months of the pandemic, takeout was the only way restaurants could serve customers. One silver lining of that experience is that most restaurants around the state are now better equipped to serve food to-go.

Picking up food while wearing a mask or having it delivered to your door still remains a safest way to enjoy a meal that wasn't cooked at home. The CDC describes drive-through, delivery, takeout, and curbside pick up options as the lowest risk way to dine out.

At the other end of the spectrum, the CDC describes dining options with indoor seating, seating capacity that has not been reduced and tables that are not spaced at least 6 feet apart as presenting the highest potential risk.

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As delta spreads, returning to some of the safety measures put in place earlier in the pandemic can help curb the spread. On July 27, the CDC updated its advice to recommend fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors. 

At restaurants, it's impossible to wear a mask while eating, so trying to maintain a minimum of six feet of space between yourself and others becomes even more important.

When removing a mask to eat, those sitting outdoors are much safer, Marvasti says.

Throughout the pandemic, and with grants from Ducey's office, many restaurants added patios or expanded outdoor seating.

Do Plexiglas dividers help prevent the spread of COVID-19?

Throughout the pandemic, restaurants and bars spent thousands of dollars on installing ventilation and filtration systems that clean and circulate the air, adding Plexiglas dividers between booths, transforming menus into scannable QR codes and adding lines of tape to indicate where people should wait. 

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But how helpful were these measures?

"Ventilation systems are definitely helpful," Marvasti says, but "dividers really don’t do anything."

He explained that the virus won't stop because there's a square of plastic to go around. 

Before visiting a restaurant, customers can call or check social media to see what safety measures the business has put in place, from having a fully vaccinated staff to requiring servers or diners to wear masks.

Can restaurants require proof of vaccination?

One way some restaurant owners have chosen to try to protect their customers and staff is by requiring customers to show proof of vaccination.

Many of these restaurants have faced backlash, even drawing protesters picketing outside. However, legally, it is within a restaurant owner's rights to ask about vaccination status. As private businesses, owners can legally refuse entry to unvaccinated people. 

Vaccination status in Arizona:Yes, restaurant workers can ask if you're vaccinated.

For those who are vaccinated, visiting a restaurant where everyone else is vaccinated as well can offer some peace of mind. It can also be less risky, Marvasti says.

"If everyone at the restaurant is vaccinated, you reduce the chances of that restaurant being the source of an infection that leads to a hospitalization and death," he says.

However, vaccinated people can still spread the disease between one another and bring it home to others, so dining out, even with proof of vaccination, is not entirely free of risk.

Can restaurants require masks?

Yes, restaurants can require customers to wear masks. Similar to the legalities surrounding vaccination status, restaurants are private businesses and make the rules for those entering their space. (Remember "no shoes, no shirt, no service"?)

As delta spreads, more small businesses throughout the Valley are returning to mask requirements.

At Hana, Hashimoto provides disposable masks for anyone who forgets. Making sure her customers are safe, even if they are not all happy with the requirements, is her main focus. 

"I've taken very measurable, effective steps," she says. "And the debate ends at the door."

Reach the reporter at tirion.morris@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @tirionmorris, on Facebook at Tirion Rose and on Instagram at tirionrose. 

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