Despite repeated requests, Shelby County Health Department officials will not release data that demonstrates local restaurants are a cause of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris says the Health Department has information that justifies the latest restrictions on restaurants enacted Nov. 23 but he he did not say what it was.

“I’ve seen data,” Harris said. “I’ve seen all kinds of data.”

Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter has not returned repeated calls from The Daily Memphian since Nov. 25.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland didn’t respond to requests for information about data to support restrictions on restaurants.

Restaurateurs seek data and dialogue from Health Department

Memphis Restaurant Association president Ernie Mellor says he knows of no restaurateur who has been contacted by the Shelby County Health Department and told that a diner tested positive for COVID-19.

“I don’t know of one case of anyone being called,” he said. “There could be one, but we don’t know about it.”

The MRA, which has 169 restaurants and 94 affiliate members, penned a letter on behalf of beleaguered restaurants on Wednesday, Nov. 25, asking the Health Department for better communication and access to the data that is being used to make decisions restricting their business.

Haushalter said through a spokesman that she would comment directly to the Memphis Restaurant Association, but had not done so as of Monday night.

Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo described the latest directive as a “compromise,” and Arlington Mayor Mike Wissman said the data he’s seen is difficult to interpret and causing “frustration.”

“The Shelby County Health Department met with the Shelby County mayors to review proposed restrictions in Health Directive 15 as intervention tactics ahead of the winter surge,” Palazzolo said by email.

He said that he and other mayors were against closing restaurants for an extended period and struck a balance on the current rules.

Wissman said, “Frustration is the right term for everybody.”

Wissman said gyms and restaurants seem to be the main targets of Health Department restrictions, but he sees other businesses with bigger crowds, such as Walmart and Home Depot, as more problematic.

Further, suburban mayors have trouble interpreting the data as it pertains to their cities and towns. Wissman notes that the data is not localized and doesn’t properly reflect where the problems exist.

“I don’t know if I have trusted the data” at any time, he said, adding that the “numbers are all over the place.”

Memphis Restaurant Association seeks answers from Health Department

Shelby County is one of six counties in the state with its own health department. In those counties, local health departments are in charge of most public health policies, though restrictions on places of worship remain under state control and municipalities make decisions about schools.

Harris says the Health Department’s COVID-19 contact-tracing interviews now specifically ask people with the virus, or those who have had contact with them, whether they have been to restaurants.

“That new interview tool talks about what confirmed cases have done out in our community,” he said. “One of the highest points of interest in that interview tool is ‘Have you been at a restaurant?’ A good significant portion has been at a restaurant.” 

David Sweat, deputy Health Department director, said in an email Nov. 25 that “locally, 24% of symptomatic COVID-19 cases report eating out in restaurants while infectious, and 50% or more report socializing with others while infectious.”

If infectious people are in restaurants, owners say, they aren’t being told. 

Even when an employee at The Majestic Grille/Cocozza American Italian tested positive, the Health Department did not notify owners Deni and Patrick Reilly.

At Erling Jensen: The Restaurant, a patron and an employee were COVID-positive, yet Jensen wasn’t notified by the Health Department.

“We basically did our own contact tracing,” he said. “We closed down, called the people who were there and told them.”

Their livelihoods threatened, local restaurateurs say they need data, clarity and cooperation to continue playing their part in curbing the spread of COVID-19.

More than 20,000 restaurants were reported permanently closed across the country from COVID-19 in September, and that was before the winter coronavirus surge; the industry has been hit hard and some feel it’s been unjustly targeted. 

The recent Shelby County Health Department directive, with what some consider vague language about how masks are to be worn and who can sit together at tables, put restaurateurs and diners in conflict.

At Restaurant Iris and The Second Line, three tables of would-be guests walked out before 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 27, because they were told they had to keep their masks on until their food or drink arrived.

They argued they didn’t have to.

It happened at 117 Prime the same day, capping off a week of cancellations by large parties after the directive, which said guests at a table had to be of the same household, went in effect.

“I don’t understand why the Health Department can’t get the message out,” said Ryan Trimm, who owns 117 Prime, Sweet Grass and Sunrise as a partner in Across the Board Restaurant Group.

“If they’re going to put out directives, I don’t understand why they can’t be clear. Can’t they put ads in the paper and on TV saying what the rules are, maybe give us posters to put on our doors?”

Kelly English, chef/owner at Restaurant Iris and The Second Line, says sure, that would be great.

“But the problem is that the poster will have to change next week,” he said. “We haven’t had anything consistent in 2020. From figuring it out ourselves in March to going to curbside and delivery, to reopening a restaurant, which is not something I’d wish on anyone.

“We haven’t been able to wake up on any given day and know what it’s going to be like. It could change before the day is over.”

Chef English said everyone knows the real enemy is COVID-19.

“I’m cool with any restriction,” he said. “I’m of the mind that restrictions are not our problem, but the virus is. And I can prove that by saying that even at 50% capacity, we’re not full.

“But whatever the restrictions are, they have to be clear.”

Trimm said that 117 Prime lost between $4,000 and $5,000 last week because of cancellations after the latest directive, which said each table is limited to six diners if there are children present and four adults if not, and that everyone has to be of the same household.

“We’ve been trying to work with the Health Department and I personally think they’re not even trying to work with us,” Trimm said. “Where do you find a household of four adults? Who goes out to eat with people from the same house? You go to see friends.”

And some people thought the new rule about masks required diners to put their masks back on between every bite of food.

Spot check shows some diners abiding by new mask rules

Haushalter said in a Nov. 24 press briefing that masks must stay on until diners begin to eat or drink and go on again after they finish, and that restaurants could take diners at their word if they say they live in the same household.

The directive says restaurants “must require their customers to wear a mask at all times except for when the customer is actually eating a bite of food or drinking a beverage.”

That message confuses diners and restaurateurs, English said.

“Mean what you say and say what you mean,” he said. “That’s not too much to ask, is it? If I can be fined $2,500 for breaking a rule, shouldn’t I know what it is?”

“It turns the interpretation into a restaurant policy instead of a Health Department rule,” he said. “If they don’t make it clear, it means we have to determine the rule and diners are doing the same thing.”

English says responsible restaurants want the Health Department to be tough on rule breakers.

“And put some teeth in it. These people out there skirting the rules, I will never consider them colleagues again. Never.”

The directive is an attempt to “get people to act differently,” said Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald. He said he also wishes that the mandates for restaurants could be more “laser focused” on the “bad actors” who are not following Health Department protocols.

And McDonald understands it’s not easy for businesses.

“Restaurants need to be sure people keep masks on until they’re actually eating. Who wants to be the waiter to enforce that when tips are at stake?” he said. And although only 24% of those who are infected reported eating out while infectious in contact tracing questions, it’s the nature of the virus that makes it concerning, McDonald said.

So while he and other mayors want to help businesses stay safely open, he understands the Health Department has a job to do.

“The explanation that we’ve been getting — and it’s consistent with all the infectious disease doctors that I’ve talked to — is that this disease is so contagious. It’s so much easier to get this one. And the numbers are proving that they’re right on a number of these things,” he said.

The Health Department directive is what they have to work with.

“It’s the best we can do at this time. And if the numbers continue to go up, I expect our ability to negotiate with the Health Department will be diminished,” he said.

The Daily Memphian’s Clay Bailey, Bill Dries, Linda Moore, Jane Roberts and Abigail Warren contributed to this story.