SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ – The tourism industry in New Jersey continues to suffer under the COVID-19 lockdown, but more devasting is the indoor dining ban that is also impacting shore area restaurants and restaurants across New Jersey. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy cites a 9 month-old incident in Hunan Province, China as the underlying science of his continued closure of the restaurant industry. That report, however, is not being taken seriously by any other governor in the United States. In fact, 48 Governors across America claim different science than the science New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy touts. This month, New York Governor Mario Cuomo reopened restaurants outside of New York City.
According to Open Tables, America’s largest restaurant table reservation service, only two states currently outlaw indoor dining, the liberal strongholds of New Jersey, New York and Calfornia. Open Table offers a comprehensive guide to state-by-state indoor dining regulations.
Statewide all but two allow indoor dining with restrictions. Most of those restrictions include limited occupancy. In some states that have experienced regional outbreaks, governors have scaled back indoor dining major cities, but left indoor dining open in the rural areas of their state. That’s the case in Miami-Dade County, Florida where indoor dining is currently restricted, but allowed across the state of Florida.
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