ROANOKE, Va. – Gov. Ralph Northam has issued his toughest guidance yet to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Virginia. On Tuesday, Northam mandated that places like bars, restaurants, fitness centers and theaters limit their capacity to 10 customers, or face consequences such as license revocations and misdemeanor charges.
Some restaurants in the area were already offering take out or delivery only options before the mandate came down and the Governor's executive order is meant to bring the rest in line. But local businesses, and law enforcement, who the Governor authorized to enforce the rule, are confused about what this looks like in reality.
Northam said the situation is a public health emergency, but the rules continue to rapidly change and those in southwest Virginia are scrambling to keep up.
Chick-Fil-A was one of the early businesses to announce it was closing its dining room for the foreseeable future, ahead of the mandate and going beyond the mandate's requirements. On Tuesday night, Jordan Caldwell sat in the back of a pickup truck in the restaurant's parking lot with family and friends eating his dinner. They have a tradition of eating at Chick-Fil-A every Tuesday, and Coronavirus wasn't going to stop them.
"They closed the dining room so we had to tailgate it out in the nice weather that we were given today," Caldwell said. "(We) still wanted to come out and enjoy time with family and friends."
The Governor began Tuesday by announcing the new regulation, following in the footsteps of other states who have enacted some variation of limiting the number of people gathered inside a restaurant or other entertainment-type business at the same time. Grocery stores, pharmacies and other essential places are not affected, according to the Governor.
At Tuesday's press conference the Governor was unclear about the legal backing of the order, saying he's asking people to comply and working with the Attorney General to figure it out. Other states have gone as far as closing dining rooms completely, and while Northam encouraged that, he did not require it.
"We're not mandating that they close, but we're mandating, or suggesting or encouraging, that they use take out ordering so that people won't be inside of the confined space," Northam said.
But in a release following the press conference, only the word mandate was used when talking about the 10 customer limit. By 6 p.m. that night, the Governor issued another announcement stating that he's authorizing local law enforcement to enforce the executive order limiting capacities.
That created lots of confusion for people on the receiving end of things. Tuesday night's dinner hour seemed to proceed as normal at a number of Roanoke chain restaurants who had half-full parking lots. 10 News called those restaurants who didn't say anything about a customer limit, just that they were closing an hour or two earlier than usual.
At The Village Grill in Roanoke's Grandin neighborhood, owner Nathan Webster was trying to adjust his business to the rules as they continued to change. He had lots of questions about what the order meant and how it would impact him. Shortly before the Governor announced the law enforcement part of the puzzle, Webster decided to close his dining room going forward. He wished there would be clearer messaging from the Governor's office.
“I feel like they need to tell us either you need to close and do take out only or not, when you leave a ten-person buffer there, there’s a lot of room for interpretation there from different owners,” Webster said.
Local police agencies also seemed just as confused when asked about how they would enforce the executive order, unable to say when it would start or what it could look like. The Governor said those found breaking the rule could lose their health license and be charged with a misdemeanor for violating an emergency order.
Webster said he's changing his menu to family-style and offering take out only going forward, and that this too shall pass.
“Right now the unknown is kind of what is scaring people and making people nervous, but as soon as we get that solution moving forward we’re going to get right back into spring, everything is going to be fine,” Webster said.