A Better Region 8: Be smart and continue to follow guidelines as we slowly reopen

(KAIT) -This week, the next phase of our reopening begins as restaurants can seat diners.

The state health department is limiting seating to a third of the capacity of what it was before the quarantine started.

For example, if a restaurant could seat 100 people, that means they can handle 33 dine-in customers at a time.

Up to ten people can be seated in one group.

To be clear, that means the restaurant can’t be more than a third full and no individual groups of more than ten people at a time.

And, let’s not forget the safety precautions that still need to be followed.

Keep your distance while waiting to go inside a restaurant, big box stores, et cetera.

Wear a mask.

Obviously, take it off to eat, but think about keeping it on otherwise.

A recent study showed that if 80 percent of us wore a mask, even a simple cloth one in public, we could stop the spread of the disease.

My sparse, but necessary trips to large stores in Region 8 in recent weeks have shown we don’t know or don’t care to wear masks.

We are thankful not to be a coronavirus hotspot, so let’s do what we can to make sure we keep it that way.

Little by little each week, we begin to reopen and test how this virus reacts to more people congregating together.

Let’s act responsibly and maybe, just maybe, we can beat this coronavirus.

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