Disposable menus and temperature checks. A new normal is coming when COVID-19 restrictions lift

Restaurants could take your temperature at the door. Children might eat lunch in classrooms instead of cafeterias. Mass gatherings will still be off the table.

We still don’t know when California officials will lift stay-at-home orders. But when they do, it’s clear life will look very different than it did before the coronavirus as the state gradually eases measures designed to slow the virus’ spread.

“There’s no light switch here,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday. “It’s more like a dimmer.”

Increased public health measures

The state will have to deploy thousands of people to help track the spread of infection, Newsom said at a Tuesday press conference.

They will monitor six areas, the governor said, to determine when to ease – or reimpose – restrictions. Those include testing and hospital capacity, ability to protect vulnerable people and development of new treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The state will have to ramp up testing so it is available to everyone who shows symptoms. Public health workers will need to trace the spread of infection from those who test positive to others they have been in contact with. Newsom suggested that technology companies could be involved in that effort, but did not give specific details.

It will also require dramatically increased cleaning and sanitation of public places and equipment, including benches and playgrounds, Newsom said.

The prospect of mass gatherings like sports events, he said, “is negligible at best.”

Changes for schools

Schools will look different in the fall, and state officials are discussing possible scenarios on how to continue physically distancing from one another, including possibly staggering students and class schedules.

Newsom gave possible scenarios, suggesting a possible reduction in class sizes, and modifying the way schools serve lunch, hold assemblies, recess and physical education.

“We need to get our kids back to school. I need to get my kids back to school,” Newsom said. “We need to do it in a safe way so kids are not going to school, getting infected and then coming back home and then infecting grandma and grandpa. So we have to be very vigilant in that respect.”

Many school districts in the Sacramento region have yet to begin “distance learning programs,” as officials struggle to provide enough online education and technology to finish the current school year. No school districts have announced when they plan to begin the 2020-21 school year – and some have said their plans for summer school remain unclear.

Some of the potential changes mentioned by Newsom would also require agreements between districts and labor unions. Those negotiations have been a roadblock for some local districts trying to launch online learning programs this month.

Differences at restaurants and other businesses

Businesses will need to implement social distancing and take steps to prevent customers and staff from spreading the virus, said Dr. Sonia Angell, who leads the state’s Department of Public Health.

Restaurants will likely have disposable menus, Newsom said. Customers might have their temperatures checked at the door and wait staff might wear masks, he said. Restaurants will also likely have to operate with reduced capacity, allowing fewer diners in at once.

Local restaurant owners say all of that could be easier said than done.

In Roseville, Nixtaco tried operating at half capacity for a day or two before all restaurants statewide were ordered to cease dine-in service. It was a disaster, chef/owner Patricio Wise said. Reducing the bar to three seats meant people tried to stand or move chairs nearby, Wise said, while most food orders were to-go.

Printing disposable menus and stocking up on thermometer covers will cost money, and Wise said he wasn’t sure reopening the Mexican restaurant’s dining room at half- or quarter- capacity would make economic sense.

“I don’t see a model like that working for us, where it would minimize dining volume,” Wise said. “I’ve pivoted toward takeout and delivery, and I’m focused on maximizing our efforts toward gaining as much revenue as possible with that new model.”

More masks

Californians also will be encouraged to wear masks when they are in public, Angell said.

Official California guidance on masks has shifted since the start of the outbreak. At first, officials discouraged the general public from buying and wearing masks. At the start of April, Newsom and Angell altered their advice, saying there is some evidence masks help. They stopped short of recommending all Californians wear them.

Wearing a face covering may reduce the spread of coronavirus by blocking saliva droplets, but masks are still no substitute for physical distancing, Angell said.

Wearing a mask could give someone a false sense of security, which could be dangerous if it leads someone to stop following guidelines on physical distancing, hand washing, or face touching, she said.

When more people leave their home, they said, masks will become commonplace. They said people should continue to wear cloth face masks, not surgical or N95 masks that health workers need.

It adds up, Newsom said, to life that will require “more individual accountability, more individual responsibility as it relates to face covers and practicing physical distancing.”

This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Disposable menus and temperature checks. A new normal is coming when COVID-19 restrictions lift."