In fact, the health authority warns that certain establishments should be avoided at all costs amid the COVID pandemic. They advise looking out for a small handful of red flags, which you’ll most likely be able to spot before you walk through the door. Read on to find out what to look out for, and for more on everyday activities during the pandemic, check out If Your Grocery Store Doesn’t Have This, Don’t Go Inside, CDC Says. When it comes to eating out, there’s a small handful of warning signs that should have you heading for the hills, says the CDC. “Eating inside restaurants that are poorly ventilated, where social distancing is not possible, servers and staff do not wear masks, and diners do not wear masks when not actively eating or drinking” is still a high-risk activity. Their advice? Don’t go inside. And for more COVID news delivered right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. The CDC also warns against visiting any restaurant with self-service features or a buffet. Because these “require extensive touching of surfaces,” making contamination far more likely. This should come as no surprise, given that buffets have long been known to spread bacteria and viruses with ease. In fact, one black light experiment designed to simulate the spread of germs in this type of setting revealed just how swiftly COVID can travel under these conditions—in just 30 minutes, all participants involved in the research had germs on their utensils, food, hands, clothes, and faces. And for more COVID tips from the CDC, check out The CDC Says You Should Immediately Do This Once You’ve Been Vaccinated. One key to safe dining—indoor or out—is proper spacing between tables, but most restaurants without capacity limits simply cannot do this safely. “If you do indoor dining, you do it in a spaced way where you don’t have people sitting right next to each other,” White House COVID advisor Anthony Fauci, MD, told CNN’s Don Lemon in February.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Other experts have said that even with strict capacity limitations, it’s best to avoid all indoor dining. “I don’t know why restaurants are reopening,” Linsey Marr, a civil and environmental engineer who has studied airflow and COVID transmission, told CNN in February. “I don’t think anything’s changed from the time the restaurants were closed. If anything, it’s riskier because of the new variants that are more transmissible.” And speaking of those new variants, check out This One Vaccine May Protect You Against All Variants, New Study Says. During the colder winter months, many restaurants have come up with a creative solution to closed indoor spaces: outdoor dining pods. But experts say that these can pose their own sort of risk if they’re not properly cleaned and aired out between customers. When these dining bubbles are completely enclosed, they also ramp up the risk of COVID spread for anyone from two separate households dining together. Because, while you may be separated from crowds, you’re almost sure to come in contact with your dining companion’s exhaled air in these cramped conditions. “If you are meeting friends [in a dining pod] I’d pretty much call that a boutique COVID party!” practicing internist David Fisman, MD, professor of epidemiology at University of Toronto in Canada, told Forbes of enclosed dining pods. However, he says, “if you’re in there with your household bubble you’re not exposed to anyone you’re not exposed to anyway.” And for more essential COVID news, check out Be Prepared for This the Night You Get Your COVID Vaccine, Doctors Warn.
