CDC CHIEF WARNS OF ANOTHER COVID SURGE IF STATES DON'T SLOW THEIR REOPENINGS

Restaurants are likely to be hit with another wave of shutdowns and restrictions if government officials continue to abandon anti-COVID safety measures at the pace of recent weeks, according to a near-tearful warning Monday from the nation’s head germ warrior.

Rochelle Walensky said she spoke “as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter” and not as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in warning of “impending doom.”

Her emotional plea to slow the easing of safety measures prompted President Biden to echo her recommendation that states throttle back on their efforts to lift business-dampening protocols. Those measures include asking businesses to require that masks be worn by customers and staffs.

The call for tapping the brakes came as clear signs emerge of a restaurant rebound fueled in no small part by the easing of caps on on-premise dining. 

The Granite City brewpub chain, for instance, reported Monday that its same-store sales for the fourth quarter ended Jan. 3 had fallen 40%. For at least a portion of that three-month stretch, half the chain’s dining rooms were closed.  In contrast, comparable sales jumped 60% during the first 25 days of March, when a number of states had dropped or significantly raised their capacity caps on indoor dining.

Governors have yet to publicly respond to the requests from Walensky and Biden to slow their reopening efforts.  Both federal officials indicated that they will intensify their appeals to the state leaders in the days ahead.