Editorial: Help eateries get to fuller capacity

Has the time come to let restaurants operate at full capacity and try to reclaim what they’ve lost to the horrendous months of the pandemic?

The Hawaii Restaurant Association says yes, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi says probably, Gov. David Ige on Tuesday said well, kinda. The answer should be more yes than no.

In an executive order that takes effect Nov. 12, Ige lifted a 50% seating limit on restaurants in counties that require customers to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test as the price of entry. This covers Oahu, which maintains this standard for restaurants, bars, gyms and similar recreational spaces.

But Ige left in place indoor social-distancing requirements that mean restaurant parties must be seated 6 feet apart (as well as indoor masking when not eating or drinking). He said the state will continue to follow safe-practices guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calling for that 6-foot radius when it comes to unmasked indoor activities.

For many restaurants this combo offers little relief, as they lack the space to both maintain social distancing and fill the house, or even come close.

On the other hand, when it comes to outdoor dining, the governor lifted all restrictions, come Nov. 12. So no masks, no 6-foot buffer zone, no capacity limits. This will allow restaurants who have roomy patios to make up some lost ground, although they’ll have to guard against spillover between outdoor and indoor clientele.

The lucrative holiday season is coming on fast and restaurants needed a decision on this question. It takes time to restock the pantry and restore a staff, especially given supply-chain holdups and the tight labor market. At least they did get partial good news. Our holiday wish would be for COVID-19 to recede even more, allowing for a complete lifting of restrictions, by the time Ige’s executive order expires on Nov. 30.

Businesses everywhere have had to take a bullet for the sake of public safety during the pandemic, but restaurants took more than their share of live fire.

A devastating loss of income, shifting mandates and the whims of the coronavirus left many in a hopeless financial state. Those still surviving say they are doing only that — surviving — having done all they can to adjust their business models to make do in this new world.

Restaurants were closed to all but takeout business in March of 2020, then slowly regained ground, but were still dealing with that 50% limit on seating. The governor’s well-publicized call to close off tourism during a late-summer COVID-19 surge further slowed recovery.

Everyone would like restaurants to have a fair shot, ever so important considering it’s an industry that by the mayor’s estimate accounts for $6.5 billion in annual spending. But no one wants restaurants to become clusters of infection. So it all boils down to assessing the threat, as it exists today and as it is likely to develop in the next few months. There are plenty of examples of communities that relaxed too soon, only to face overloaded intensive-care units.

In Hawaii, though, the metrics are better, thanks to a slow and steady approach to reopening, coupled with an enviable vaccination rate (as of Tuesday, 83.6% among residents over age 12). That late-summer surge in cases brought on by the delta variant gave us a couple of scary months, but cases seem to have leveled out, thanks to both those factors. And when it comes to our eateries, the state Department of Health report on disease clusters shows none in a restaurant, bar or nightclub in the last two weeks.

Fully opened restaurants would be a big step toward accepting that although we cannot rid ourselves of the coronavirus, we can learn to live with it. Not to mention the uplift that comes when friends and family can freely eat, drink and be merry at thriving restaurants. We’re getting there.