Starting Wednesday, you can order drinks and food across the bar again in Virginia.
Governor Ralph Northam relaxed Executive Order 72, which deals with COVID-19 restrictions.
It previously allowed for people to be seated at tables adjacent to the bar, but now people can sit directly at the bar as long as parties are six feet apart.
“Congregating areas of restaurants must be closed to patrons except for through-traffic. Patrons may be seated at the bar for service, provided a minimum of six feet is provided between parties,” the order reads.
Not perfect, but it’s a start. Kelly’s owner Gene Kelly noted on a Facebook post, “This “New” Bar seating rule is going to be a nightmare! But we will work on it!…..It is a bit complicated…you can sit at the bar but….”parties” must be separated by 6′. I can see it already.” But there are 7 of us, why can’t we just stand there?” “But these people that just came in the door are with us”……..”Why can’t we just grab those 2 stools over there?”
Restaurants, Dining Establishments, Food Courts, Breweries, Microbreweries, Distilleries, Wineries, and Tasting Rooms Restaurants, dining establishments, food courts, breweries, microbreweries, distilleries, wineries, and tasting rooms may continue to operate delivery, take-out, and indoor and outdoor service, provided such businesses comply with the Guidelines for All Business Sectors, and sector-specific guidelines for restaurant and beverage services incorporated by reference herein.
Such guidance includes, but is not limited to, the following requirements:
- No alcoholic beverage shall be sold, consumed, or possessed on premises between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 5:00 a.m. in any restaurant, dining establishment, food court, brewery, microbrewery, distillery, winery, or tasting room. Alcoholic beverages may continue to be sold via delivery or take-out between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 5:00 a.m., as permitted by existing regulations promulgated by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority.
- Closure of all dining and congregation areas in restaurants, dining establishments, food courts, breweries, microbreweries, distilleries, wineries, and tasting rooms between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 5:00 a.m. Restaurants, dining establishments, food courts, breweries, microbreweries, distilleries, wineries, and tasting rooms may continue to offer delivery and take-out services between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 5:00 a.m.
- All private bookings are limited to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors, and must comply with section I, subsection B, paragraph 1.
- All parties must be separated by at least six feet, including in the bar area. Tables at which dining parties are seated must be positioned six feet apart from other tables. If tables are not movable, parties must be seated at least six feet apart, including in the bar area.
- Customers may be provided with self-service options. Facilities must provide hand sanitizer at food lines and require the use of barriers (e.g., gloves or deli paper) when employees or patrons touch common utensils. Food lines must be monitored by trained staff at all times of operation, and serving utensils must be changed hourly. 3
- Employees must wear masks over their nose and mouth while working at their place of employment. Exceptions noted in section II do not apply.
- Patrons must wear masks over their nose and mouth, except while eating or drinking, in accordance with section II.
- Routine cleaning and disinfection of frequently-contacted surfaces must be conducted during operation. Tabletops must be cleaned in between patrons.
- Congregating areas of restaurants must be closed to patrons except for through-traffic. Patrons may be seated at the bar for service, provided a minimum of six feet is provided between parties.
- If any such business cannot adhere to these requirements, it must close.
Paul Plante says
Is there some kind of scam going on with these vaccines?
Are we being handed a load of horse**** about the efficacy of these vaccines to protect us from COVID?
It certainly sounds like it from these new guidelines from the CDC which tell vaccinated people they still need to wear masks to protect them from catching the COVID the vaccine is supposed to prevent them from catching:
CNBC
“CDC says fully vaccinated people can exercise, hold small gatherings outdoors without masks”
Berkeley Lovelace Jr. @BERKELEYJR
PUBLISHED TUE, APR 27 2021
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its public health guidance Tuesday, saying fully vaccinated people can exercise and attend small gatherings outdoors without wearing a face mask.
The agency still recommends that fully vaccinated people wear a mask at outdoor spaces where the risk of Covid-19 is less clear.
Those include sporting events, concerts, parades and other crowded places.
“In public spaces, the vaccination status of other people or whether they are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 is likely unknown,” the CDC wrote in its guidance.
“Therefore, fully vaccinated people should continue to follow guidance to protect themselves and others, including wearing a well-fitted mask, when indoors or in an outdoor setting or venue where masks are required.”
“CDC cannot provide the specific risk level for every activity in every community, so it is important to consider your own personal situation and the risk to you, your family, and your community before venturing out without a mask,” the agency added.
During a press briefing Tuesday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said she hopes the new guidance will encourage more Americans to get vaccinated.
“Today is another day we can take a step back to the normalcy of before,” she said.
“If you are fully vaccinated, things are much safer for you than those who are not fully vaccinated.”
President Joe Biden has said he hopes to see enough Americans vaccinated by Independence Day to safely hold small outdoor gatherings.
On Tuesday, Biden touted the CDC guidance, saying vaccinated people can now go to the park or a picnic with friends unmasked.
He cited the loosened restrictions as a reason to get vaccinated, but stressed that Americans should still wear masks in more crowded outdoor settings.
“I want to be clear: If you’re in a crowd like a stadium or at a concert, you still need to wear a mask, even if you’re outside,” he said in a speech on North Lawn at the White House.
The CDC also said unvaccinated people can exercise alone or with a household member without a mask.
It still recommends vaccinated people wear masks in places such as hair salons, shopping malls, museums, movie theaters and houses of worship.
Over the weekend, White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci indicated that the new mask guidance was imminent, but also warned that Americans should adhere to public health measures until the CDC makes an assessment.
“What I believe you’re going to be hearing, what the country is going to be hearing soon, is updated guidelines from the CDC,” Fauci told ABC’s Sunday program “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.”
“The CDC is a science-based organization.”
“They don’t want to make any guidelines unless they look at the data and the data backs it up.”
Sorin Varzaru says
“It certainly sounds like it from these new guidelines from the CDC which tell vaccinated people they still need to wear masks to protect them from catching the COVID the vaccine is supposed to prevent them from catching”
the vaccine efficacy was published, it’s between 65 and 95 for the original strain and probably less for the newer ones. you can always not wear a mask and claim you have a “medical” condition. In your case it’s true, you have an untreatable case of democrat hate.
Note: More stupidity to feed the stupid. A mask or vaccine will never fix stupid.
Paul Plante says
I also believe that I am quite a bit older than you, Sorin, and perhaps am in better physical shape than yourself, and am in far better mental and emotional health than yourself.
I believe that the best way to deal with COVID, and this is just me, of course, is to not listen to that ******* windbag Fauci, or the CDC director, or Joe Biden, who is a goofball, and to simply get the virus, and study the virus internally and then harness my innate and adaptive immune systems to defeat it, rather than relying on some very uncertain vaccine being pushed by goofy Joe Biden that might be nothing more than horse piss or sugar water.
Sorin Varzaru says
Knock yourself out Paul. Get the virus. I’m sure all the people who died from it are fake news. Good luck there.
Paul Plante says
People who died from it are hardly “fake” news, Sorin – you have been listening to Trump and Rush Limbo to get your talking points for far too long with that mantra, Sorin.
I personally know people who have died from it, so that is hardly the “fake” news you are portraying it to be.
So that is silly talk on your part, Sorin, claiming that it is fake news that COVID kills people.
But the fact that people I know have died from COVID does not mean that I am going to die of COVID, too.
And in the end, Sorin , and you can check this out for yourself on the internet if you don’t believe me, EVERYBODY ultimately dies from something, if they don’t live forever.
When it’s your time, Sorin, the Eagle comes for you and that is it.
I can live with that.
Can you?
Paul Plante says
Uh, not to put too fine a point on things here, Sorin, but by this time, the COVID has been out there for a long time now, and likely, unless you live in a cave, or are hiding in an RV somewhere far from people, you have long since been exposed, because it is already everywhere.
So I have already had it, Sorin, and my immune system has adapted to it.
How about yours?
Paul Plante says
And I don’t hate Democrats, Sorin, any more than I hate black flies or poison ivy.
Why waste the emotional energy doing so?
What possible purpose could that serve?
And are you serious even thinking that?
Don’t you know there is no better way to destroy your immune system than by going around hating inanimate objects like Democrats?
Might as well hate a box of rocks.
A waste of time both ways as I see it.
Yes, Democrats are very worthy of scorn and contempt and ridicule, but hate?
Not as far as I am concerned, anyway.
And thanks for giving me an opportunity to clarify that, Sorin.
It is appreciated.
Blue Hoss says
Wouldn’t it be something if their vaccine has killer side effects over time? It would weed out the sheep.
Sorin Varzaru says
By all means, don’t take the vaccine.
Note: This ‘sick until proven healthy’ mentality is a sickness in itself.
Paul Plante says
EUTERS
“Exclusive: Lilly hit by staff accusations, FDA scrutiny at COVID drug factories”
By Dan Levine, Marisa Taylor
MAY 5, 2021
(Reuters) – Eli Lilly & Co employees have accused a factory executive of altering documents required by government regulators in an effort to downplay serious quality control problems at the U.S. plant producing the drugmaker’s COVID-19 treatment, according to an internal Lilly complaint and a source familiar with the matter.
The unsigned report, filed April 8 in Lilly’s confidential employee complaint system and reviewed by Reuters, is the latest sign of manufacturing problems at the drug giant.
The complaint asserts that the executive, a top quality official at the company’s factory in Branchburg, New Jersey, rewrote findings by Lilly technical experts at the plant, which has been under investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to make the conclusions appear more favorable to the company.
Separately, FDA inspectors in March identified numerous manufacturing lapses at a second Lilly facility in Indianapolis that bottles the COVID-19 therapy and other drugs.
The problems included substandard sanitation and quality control procedures, according to a preliminary FDA inspection report released to Reuters under open records laws.
Amid the escalating manufacturing problems, however, the Branchburg plant has not shipped new batches of the COVID-19 drug bamlanivimab in nearly two months, according to the employee complaint and the source familiar with the matter.
The complaint did not specify what alterations the employees believed were made to the documents but said Wible “rewrites factual data provided by subject matter experts to formulate responses she feels are more beneficial.”
The April complaint asserts that Wible, the Branchburg factory executive, altered information provided by internal technical experts, saying she is “solely responsible for providing written responses to the FDA” regarding the types of quality control problems that regulators flagged.
The complaint said that Wible – who did not respond to questions from Reuters – used “her authority to rewrite technical investigations for which she has little or no experience.”
Lilly said in March that its combination antibody therapy reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 87% in a study of more than 750 high-risk COVID-19 patients.
Around the same time, the FDA inspected the Indianapolis plant, which receives the kinds of injectable drugs manufactured in New Jersey, fills them into vials and syringes, and distributes them to customers.
Preliminary FDA reports, which are partially redacted, show inspectors found that procedures to ensure certain areas remain sterile were substandard and that Lilly failed to thoroughly investigate drug batches that had failed quality control tests.
In addition, when vials from outside vendors were discarded as defective, the company failed to thoroughly investigate.
“The FDA found serious concerns on multiple fronts,” said Steven Lynn, a former head of the FDA’s Office of Manufacturing and Product Quality, who reviewed the inspection report for Reuters.
“Lilly has a lot of work to do.”
Paul Plante says
It would be something if Sorin got a notice that the batch of vaccine he got inoculated with was contaminated with rat feces and mold and chips of paint and rust from the third-world facilities that Joe Biden is having that **** made in here in the USA and they want to bring him in for experimental purposes to see what is going to happen to Sorin as a result.
Ray Otton says
“A mask or vaccine will never fix stupid.”
Man, you’re thinking is was too shortsighted. If the immunological, blood clotting and stroke problems I’ve read about manifest themselves over the next 18 months or so, stupid may fix itself for us.
Yeah, Darwin!
PS – If it really gets bad they can stop working on the Food Lion intersection. Not enough people around to cause any traffic related issues.
Hey! A boy can dream, can’t he?
Ray Otton says
Ooooooops.
your 🙂