Restaurants asking to open dining rooms on weekends, and to expand capacity to 50%, were rebuffed by Yucatan Gov. Mauricio Vila Dosal.
Vila Dosal said he would not “yielding to pressure” and “put the lives of thousands of Yucatecans at risk.” Coronavirus spread has not abated in Yucatan as 76 new infections were detected and 10 patients died between late Tuesday and Wednesday evening.
Some restaurants have campaigned on social media, with the hashtag #NecesitosAbrirParaSubsistir, to return to seven-day-a-week schedules. They were among the first businesses whose operations were severely curtailed under coronavirus contingencies.
The local restaurant business guild said the Yucatecan restaurant sector generates about 70,000 jobs a year, which are at risk of disappearing.
Restaurants were allowed to move forward two weeks ago under the first wave of an economic reopening in Yucatan. But officials are closely monitoring coronavirus data while plotting out the future.
“If we don’t do things right, we will close business again,” said the governor. “In Beijing, they closed the city for 31 cases in a day. Here we have an average of 60 new infections every day.”
Vila Dosal on Thursday held a virtual meeting with members of the Business Coordinating Council to clarify the process of economic reactivation.
