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Restaurants Brace for Another Surge, Another Variant By Jennifer Fumiko Cahill jennifer@northcoastjournal.com
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NORTH COAST JOURNAL • Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022 • northcoastjournal.com
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n Jan 3., when news came that Humboldt County had a record-breaking 400 confirmed new COVID-19 cases, as well as two confirmed Omicron variant infections (see page TK), it hit more than close to home for Six Rivers Brewery co-owner Meredith Maier. She was, in fact, at home after having tested positive for the virus. Luckily, she says, she was exposed before a few days off, so didn’t have contact with her staff, who are vaccinated and have received booster shots, before quarantining for 10 days. Like other food and drink businesses in Humboldt, Six Rivers Brewery has changed tack and adapted to the twists and turns of the pandemic: shifting to takeout, changing cleaning protocols, reducing dining capacity or shutting down indoor service entirely, beefing up (and heating up) outdoor seating, laying off or bringing on staff, and enforcing masking rules with a sometimes resistant or downright hostile public. Now, in the face of another spike and the apparently even faster spreading
Omicron variant, restaurant workers and owners are once again bracing for impact — in terms of both health and economics. At Six Rivers Brewery, doors and windows are always open. “We get complaints about it all the time but for me it’s ventilation, ventilation, ventilation,” says Maier. “We invested in parkas for the staff to wear inside this winter.” Ventilation was on her mind the evening she gathered with friends outdoors before moving inside due to the cold. “We certainly suffered the consequences of that decision,” she says, noting that others tested positive after the event, too. “You’re definitely leaving yourself open to the possibility of infection if you’re hanging out with people unmasked in tight spaces.” Supervising Public Health Nurse Hava Phillips’s response to a Journal email echoes that thought and goes further in recommending not mixing households. “Take out is the safest option, but if you choose to dine in, eat outside with people you live with,” she says, adding that it’s important for servers to stay masked
