Restaurants in St. Louis County will be allowed to reopen for indoor dining Monday, Jan. 4, after being closed for the last six weeks as COVID-19 hospitalizations skyrocketed. Since hospitalizations are now on a downward trend, county officials are allowing restaurants to reopen indoors with five key changes to how they can operate.
Hospitalizations and cases of the coronavirus have decreased since the record highs seen the week before Thanksgiving when the indoor dining ban and a stay-at-home advisory went into effect. Cases of the virus are still at some of the highest levels seen in the county, but are on a downward trend as residents seem to have taken public health experts’ advice to stay away from large holiday family gatherings.
The Missouri Court of Appeals sided Friday with St. Louis County in a lawsuit challenging the county’s indoor dining ban. The county’s indoor dining protocols were designed to limit the spread of COVID-19 while still allowing restaurants to serve customers through outdoor dining, carryout, curbside or delivery services.
Almost all restaurants in the county are following the protocols to protect their customers and the public from COVID-19, the county said in a news release. Several restaurant families out of the county’s nearly 5,000 restaurants, led by Bartolino’s South in Green Park, filed a lawsuit challenging the indoor dining ban.