O’Brien helps shape Health Board’s ‘COVID’ voice
While having one eye on public health in attempting to limit the spread of COVID-19, Dr. Patrick O’Brien of Farragut also had one eye on the survival of Knox County restaurateurs.
One of 10 members of Knox County Board of Health, O’Brien warned the Board during its special-called virtual meeting Monday, Nov. 23, that if acting in too strict a manner to limit restaurants, “The economic impact, locally, will be pretty substantial.
“It’s trying to do that balancing act … somewhere in-between is probably what we need to look at that could be realistic,” he added.
In a unanimous Board vote (9-0, one absent), Farragut and Knox County restaurants would be limited to 50 percent capacity, with an eight-person limit per table of non-household parties (no limit on the number among those from the same household). Restaurants would be required to close at 10 p.m.
These restrictions would be in effect for at least 28 days, the Board also voted, which began at 12:01 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 25, and would end at midnight, Tuesday, Dec. 22.
“I don’t want to put anything more on restaurants. … I would like to avoid that, because I know that this time of year is where restaurants try to make up for bad times, the next 30 days,” said O’Brien, former co-owner of The Casual Pint in Farragut.
However, instead of the blame for the spread of COVID-19 in restaurants falling on the shoulders of management or employees, O’Brien said patrons use restaurants “as a place to meet, and therefore sit across from each other for 15 minutes or more without masks on many times because they’re eating — and they leave them off.
“And that’s where the exposure really is,” he added.
“… Mobility data in our county shows our restaurants as our main meeting place — at least on public property — during the week. We can look at over 700 locations in the county; it showed restaurants as the main place where people are interacting for more than 15 minutes in numbers greater than a hundred for the week.”
Ani Roma, the Board’s citizen representative who is a Hardin Valley Middle School teacher, suggested amending the number to a maximum eight per table — it originally was six. She explained it is easier for restaurants to seat a party of eight opposed to a party of six.
During an interview after the meeting, O’Brien warned, “If people don’t pitch in and do such things as mask up, distance, wash, etc., we will get worse and overwhelm our local healthcare system.
“I am hopeful we will see an eventual flattening of the current steep curve — but worry the next two to four weeks will be very challenging,” he added.
Other Board actions
The Board also voted unanimously in favor of re-iterating the need to follow the five core actions to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus in Knox County.
Action on a regulation limiting social gatherings was withdrawn until more work could be done on that regulation.
