McDonald’s considers closing indoor seating at US sites amid Delta surge
McDonalds will consider closing indoor seating areas in the US counties worst affected by the Delta variant of Covid-19.
In 2020 the majority of McDonald’s sites across the US closed their doors to eat-in diners, but last month the company had reopened 70 per cent of sites. The spread of Delta, which pushed average daily cases to 129,418 in the week ending on August 29, has put the breaks on reopening.
Last week, the fast-food giant distributed materials to US stores containing detailed plans for closing dining rooms in places where Covid-19 is rapidly spreading, according to Reuters.
The materials contained comments by McDonald’s USA President, Joe Erlinger. He said “We have a much deeper sense of what actions make a difference for the safety of our restaurant teams and crew.”
Company executives reportedly said that its stores should consider closing indoor seating in counties where Covid cases exceed 250 per 100,000 people on a rolling three-week basis.
This policy would affect many of the metropolitan counties in the US, such as Palm Beach Florida where cases exceeded 575 per 100,000 of the population this week.
The news comes as weekly cases and deaths across the US jumped by 11 per cent on Sunday.
McDonald’s’ rivals are also being forced to close their doors to customers. In Alabama and Georgia, KFC and Taco Bell stores had to cut opening hours following staff shortages as a result of Covid-19.
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