LANSING, Mich. — People who work in the restaurant industry are speaking out about a reduced capacity order for restaurants in Ingham County.
The Health Department announced the emergency order Monday after a COVID-19 outbreak at Harper's in East Lansing.
The order is restricting customers, even more, when eating inside restaurants.The order requires businesses to reduce capacity by 50% or have no more than 75 customers.
Michael Wong owns Fleetwood Diner on Cedar Street in Lansing.He says his restaurant has been following all of the orders. But that it's really up to customers when it comes to following health practices.
"It's really hard for the establishment to enforce that upon people because people seem to get really upset when we do ask them, you know, 'hey you're within the social distance you should step a little further away from this other customer.' People get really defensive about that," said Wong.
Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail says there are things businesses can do to continue enforcing safe practices to help control COVID-19 from spreading.
"If all of our businesses actually denied entry to people who didn't wear masks then we would suppress transmission and they would help us help themselves," said Vail.
In Holt, Charlie's Bar & Grill bartender Kayla Gibson says she hopes the new order will help other places. But feels confident with the way her staff is handling safe practices.
"We've been very adamant about keeping all of the rules in place," said Gibson.
"We do ask people to wear while you're inside at least until you get to the table and obviously us workers have to wear the masks at all times," added Gibson.
Customers at Charlie's say they have been there regularly since it's open and say they feel comfortable with going out and having food and drinks at the bar.
"I feel safe here just because they tend to follow the rules when it comes to anything that needs to be done," said Justin Gallaway.
"They've been following the 50% rule since they've been able to open back up," added Gallaway.
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