‘It’s devastating!’ Restaurants, small businesses unhappy with Gov. Wolf’s latest COVID-19 shutdown
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Businesses across the state, especially in the restaurant industry, are unhappy with news of another COVID-19 shutdown.
“It’s devastating, absolutely devastating,” said Jim Fris, president and CEO of the PJW Restaurant Group, which operates P.J. Whelihan’s restaurants and a number of other brands in Eastern and Central Pennsylvania. “To have to go out to more than 1,000 employees and tell them they’re not going to be able to work three weeks before Christmas is just devastating.”
On Thursday, Gov. Tom Wolf said indoor dining and alcohol sales would be shut down between Dec. 12 and Jan. 4, to slow the progress of the virus.
New coronavirus restrictions are now in effect in Pennsylvania, including a three-week ban on indoor dining and further limitations to indoor and outdoor gatherings.
Pennsylvania moved Thursday to temporarily halt school sports and other extracurricular activities, close gyms, theaters and casinos, and ban indoor dining at restaurants as state officials respond to the worsening
Pennsylvanians and booze at the holidays go together like Santa Claus and his red suit, according to a couple of recent surveys.
The Keystone State is one of the drunkest places in the U.S. during the holiday season, with the average Pennsylvanian quaffing four alcoholic beverages a day, according to a November survey by Sunrise House, a New Jersey-based addiction center. A different survey by Addiction-Treatment shows Pennsylvanians on average drink five consecutive days over the holidays.
Both surveys included responses from 3,000 people over the age of 21.
That holiday revelry, however, doesn t necessarily extend to bars and restaurants â which have been struggling for most of 2020 under pandemic-related restrictions.
Local restaurants bemoan COVID-19 restrictions suspending indoor dining heraldstandard.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heraldstandard.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.