As of Saturday, restaurants in the state of New Hampshire are now required to collect contact tracing information from dine-in patrons.
On Thursday, acting on a proposal from the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association, Gov. Chris Sununu approved the requirement that each restaurant keep a temporary database to include at least one name and phone number from each dining party for three weeks. The stored information must also include what table or bar seats they occupied, as well as the name of the server/bartender, the date and time.
Mike Somers, CEO/President of the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association, said the organization decided to put forth the proposal because of the NH Department of Health and Human Services’s recent notices of potential community exposures connected to positive cases of COVID-19 at restaurants.
“Frankly, those notices were killing our businesses,” Somers said, adding that the news blasts were “building up a bad perception” of the industry as a whole, while the actual transmissions of the coronavirus is very low in restaurants, he said.
“If you look across the landscape, those numbers are not coming from restaurants,” Somers said.
He likens having the ability for restaurants to contact trace as more of a surgical approach than the shotgun blast method used through the NH DHHS news releases.
“What we will hopefully be able to achieve is a better avenue for contact tracing,” he said. “You can notify just the tables around them.”
In an industry that’s struggling amid restrictions and shaky consumer confidence, Somers said any negative portrayal of even a single restaurant can cause ripple effects across the state.
“It’s just an untenable situation,” he said. “It could wipe out the industry or a huge segment of it and the state cannot afford for that to happen.”
BethAnne Tatro, owner of Monadnock Country Cafe in Jaffrey, said she understands the new requirement, but wishes there was a better system for communication. She found out about it like everyone else – from the news Thursday – and had just two days to put a procedure in place.
“What are you going to do? You have to do your part to make sure people are safe,” Tatro said. “We want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem, but sometimes you’re caught off guard.”
There’s no question that the last almost eight months have hurt the industry.
“People are just trying to make a living and keep local people employed,” she said. “But we’ll get through this – it’s just a matter of how long it will take.”
Between Thursday’s announcement and Saturday’s required enforcement began, Tatro said she started communicating with customers about the new requirement.
“People understand, but they do question how that information will be handled,” she said.
Wendy White, manager of the Peterborough Diner, said the plan at the downtown restaurant is to have a sign in book on the front counter for customers to leave their name, number and time of arrival. But she knows that when the diner is busy, it might be hard to ensure people actually do it.
“At that point we’ll have to go to every table and ask,” White said.
White said while “it adds another stress level, especially when you’re busy trying to make sure you get everyone that comes through the door,” she believes it will help.
“I think it could definitely make it easier to trace,” she said.
Rick Davis, owner of Rick & Diane’s Brick Oven Pizzeria in Antrim, said it will be challenging to ensure every dine-in patron is accounted for.
“For a small guy like me it’s a little difficult,” he said. “To add another thing for my employees to do is tough.”
Because of declining business, Davis said he had to cut staff, so it’s been a challenge. He said with to go orders, they always gather a name and phone number, but with those choosing to eat in the restaurant they will have to get in the habit of asking. He said about 90 percent of his business these days is take out and with the rest he will try his best to collect the contact tracing info.
“It’s making it hard to operate,” Davis said. “I can see why they’re trying to do it, but I feel bad for the full service operations.”
After Friday’s first snow fall of the season, it’s clear the days of outdoor dining may be few and far between until spring, putting restaurants in an even harder position.
“Right now, I think most restaurants are barely surviving,” Somers said. “Now that outdoor dining is not an option, I think it’s going to be extremely challenging for restaurants to survive.”
Add that to extra costs for personal protective equipment, increases in food prices and less business, and it’s difficult to envision what the future may hold.
“It’s made it extremely hard to survive in this environment,” Somers said.
White said they don’t like the idea more than anybody else and wonders what the reaction will be.
“What do we do if they refuse to give it to us?” White said. Tatro also has the same question. “Do we refuse them?” she asked. “People are entitled to their privacy.”
Somers said it becomes a decision for the restaurant whether or not to serve someone if they refuse to provide the information.
The goal of the requirement is to give contact tracers more accurate information to better identify those who need to be alerted of a possible exposure. But just like the mask policy, it falls on the restaurant owners and staff to enforce it.
“We’re all just trying to do the right thing,” Tatro said.