MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Shelby County Health Department issued a "safer at home" directive in response to more than 800 Covid-19 deaths in the county. The department's director Dr. Alisa Haushalter said it's important to consider the impact on businesses and the public's health when making these decisions.
"When we make decisions or recommendations you have to consider the impact of all of those and weigh the pros and cons," Haushalter said.
She said she consults with the county and city mayors when making these decisions, but explained we need to beat this virus before we recover financially.
"If we’re going to recover economically, we have to stop the spread of the virus locally," Haushalter said. "If the virus continues to grow, we’re not able to thrive."
The directive will take effect from December 26 to January 22. The health department is asking everyone in the area to "shelter at home" out of caution.
Among the guidelines, restaurants still doing dine-in will have to adjust to a 25% indoor dining capacity once the directive starts on Saturday. Despite not fully closing restaurants and bars, the health department is recommending that the public only does take-out orders.
Tyler Smith, the general manager and executive chef at Highlander Pub in Collierville, said the latest dining-in restrictions will be felt, but it's important that businesses keep working to adapt.
"Going to a 25% capacity is stressful," Smith said. "It does hurt, but it also doesn’t completely kick our legs out from underneath us to where we have to be in the to-go only situation."
While Smith agrees that the public's health should be the priority right now, he said the health department has come down hard on restaurants considering very few cases have been linked to these businesses.
"I feel like we are being held to a higher standard than necessarily other things and I feel like in this industry we’re trying to do our best to eradicate the problem or be a part of the solution," Smith said.