Restaurants and bars in Alabama are still prohibited from allowing on-premise consumption in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Tuesday morning, Gov. Kay Ivey unveiled the “Safer at Home Order” which laid out plans for a gradual reopening of the state. The stay-at-home order will expire April 30, while the new plan will be in place through May 15.
While the state’s retail stores will be allowed to reopen -- subject to proper sanitation, social-distancing guidelines, and limited occupancy -- restaurants and bars will still be limited to take-out and curbside service.
Before opening up the presser for questions, Ivey addressed businesses such as restaurants and barbershops directly.
”We will be working proactively with the state cosmetology board, and the Alabama Restaurant Association and other board and associations to address every business that is currently on our list of higher risk businesses that are still closed,” Ivey said, noting that there are still more questions than she and her staff could not yet answer.
Ivey is looking to a multi-phased reopening of the state.
“We know that what we are announcing today will please some and will make other frustrated that we are not going further at this time,” she said.
When asked when she and her administration will reassess plans to open restaurants and barber shops, the governor said the plan is to examine several criteria, including the vacancies of hospital beds. She also said she plans to make inroads with the Alabama Restaurant and Hospitality Association to get recommendations for next steps.
Ivey held firm to her decision not to reopen dining and tap rooms early, even as surrounding states like Georgia and Tennessee allow restaurants to reopen. When asked if she had input from neighboring governors, she replied that she had not talked to any of her fellow governors, adding that the order was “Alabama developed and Alabama prepared," with input from the congressional delegation and her executive team.
While some restaurants in Alabama have said they will open on their own timeline, others say they are ready to reopen their dining rooms based on the recommendations from the Small Business Task Force.
In Bessemer, Stacey Craig of The Bright Star has had to furlough about 90 percent of her staff. The restaurant has received a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program that she is using to pay her current working staff, as well as rent and expenses. As of Tuesday, Craig says she has been able bring back 15 employees on an hourly basis for deep cleaning and increased curbside business, and she would like to bring back some more. She was previously operating with 10 salaried employees.
“I’m in the camp that we can sensibly open because the pandemic is being controlled with safe social distancing and the quarantine," Craig told AL.com in a recent interview.
She says Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth called her as part of the Small Business Task Force survey during the recommendation planning states, and that she agrees with the guidelines laid out in the plan.
Terry Humphryes is the president of Billy’s Sports Grill and Live Bait. Humphryes was not surveyed as part of the Small Business Task force recommendations, but he says he is ready to open immediately. He has received PPP loan assistance for both locations, and is ready to rehire the staff that is on part-time unemployment. He also said he has enough masks, gloves and protective equipment for his staff when they get the green light to open.
“We’ve been cleaning, top, bottom, sideways, upside down in every direction,” Humphryes told AL.com. “We could go in and have lunch. Although we can’t now [because] we’re under a stay at home order. But we could go in and have lunch right now. It’s ready for our normal hours, from 11 to nine. Our kitchen is open. Our staff is there. We’re fully staffed and ready to go."
Dr. Wesley Willeford, Medical Director of Disease Control at Jefferson County Department of Health, said on Saturday that the recommendations outlined in the Small Business Task Force guidelines for restaurants are sound and will be essential when it is the right time to open restaurant dining rooms, taprooms, and bars. The biggest obstacle right now, said Willeford, is the current rate of infection. While there has been a downtrend in areas like Jefferson County, there are other cases statewide.
“It worries me that until we get a lower level of virus transmission, that restaurants may prove to be a new source of infection going forward," Willeford said. “Because of course, wherever you have a public gathering, there’s a potential.”
Also related to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s April 28 order:
