New Baltimore mayor closing restaurants for indoor and outdoor dining

Baltimore’s new mayor, Brandon Scott (D), announced an order shutting down indoor and outdoor dining at all city restaurants effective late Friday afternoon, a move taken to stop rising rates of COVID-19.

Scott, who took office this week and issued the order during his first full day in office, also said on Wednesday that the city’s casinos would be restricted to 25 percent capacity while other “indoor recreation establishments” would be closed, according to The Baltimore Sun.

“That hookah bar can wait. That brunch can wait,” Scott said. “We have to keep our family and the people we love alive.”

“Unfortunately, with the volume of new cases that we are seeing … activities such as eating, drinking and smoking in close proximity to others should not continue,” Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, Baltimore’s health commissioner, added during a news conference.

Scott went on to add that the city’s casinos could be closed if rates of new infections do not stabilize.

“They’re going to 25 percent with no food and drink for now,” he said, according to the Sun. “If Dr. Dzirasa and the health department continues to show that’s a problem, we will not be afraid to go further.”

Baltimore’s COVID-19 test positivity rate currently sits at 7.7 percent. The city’s rate of new cases per day peaked in November before dropping slightly. City officials are still recording rates much higher than were seen earlier this year during a first wave of infections.

Just under 27,000 total cases have been recorded across the city since the pandemic began, and 559 city residents have died after contracting the virus.