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Restaurants Not Given OK to Reopen for Dine-in Service
By: Jo Ingles | Statehouse News Bureau
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Dine-in service at Ohio’s restaurants is not among the business that will resume in a few days. Restaurants are asking Gov. Mike DeWine to allow them to open mid-May.
The Ohio Restaurant Association’s Homa Moheimeni wants DeWine to announce now that he will allow restaurants to reopen for dine-in service on May 15. Moheimeni says that will give restaurants time to implement health and safety measures such as social distancing, masks, sanitizing and other changes.
“Each day, each hour, each week that this goes on, the restaurants are going to struggle more and more. They are running out of cash essentially,” Moheimeni says.
Moheimeni says 300,000 employees have been laid off or furloughed because of the lack of dine-in service. And she says nearly half of all restaurants have closed. She adds if they are not allowed to reopen soon, many of them could be closing for good.