COVID-19 uncertainty drives some P.E.I. restaurants to close voluntarily
CBC
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the province, some Island restaurant owners are making the decision to close their doors or limit their offerings.
Under the province's current COVID-19 restrictions, restaurants may operate at 50 per cent capacity with at least two metres between each table. Each table may seat no more than 10 people. Alcohol and food cannot be served after 11 p.m. and bars and restaurants must close by midnight.
And though restaurants could remain open under those rules, some owners are choosing not to.
"When all those cases come out there, I just had no choice. And then everybody went in panic mode, which is quite understandable, so we just made the decision just to go to takeout and the pub side only," said Charlene Gill, owner of Family and Friends in Kensington.
"Everybody's scared."
Gill made the call to close her dining room on Monday evening, but said the decision was difficult because of the hardship it imposes on her staff.
"They're down to less than 20 hours a week. They can't live on that," she said.
"That's the big thing, do you lay them off? At least they get their unemployment because who can live on that? They can't. They have families."
Gill said she's planning to keep her restaurant closed until more information is available from the Chief Public Health Office.
"Until we hear the update from Dr. (Heather) Morrison … then I will sit with the staff and just see where they're at with this and we'll make a decision from there," she said.
The CPHO has sent out releases with case numbers and testing and booster clinic information over the past week, but there has not been a public health briefing since Dec. 21.
Information – with guidance from the government – is what Mike Perry, owner of The Breakfast Spot in Summerside, is also waiting for.
"There's been no communication," said Perry, who has also closed his restaurant until further notice.
"We're kind of just out there. That's why we've made this decision. We would like to have some direction from the government, but there hasn't been any. So this is what we've done."
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