Restaurant Owners Are Still Concerned About COVID Spread, According To Survey

It's no secret that the impact of COVID-19 on the restaurant industry in 2020 was widespread and devastating to many. Even though many people continued to support their favorite restaurants by ordering food for take-out or delivery, many restaurants still closed due to the major income loss. According to Restaurant Hospitality, the restaurant industry lost $255 billion in one year due to COVID-19 and likely more than 100,000 restaurants have permanently closed due to the pandemic. Now there's a new reason restaurant owners are worrying about the continued spread of the virus.

When vaccinations rolled out and became widely available to most Americans, it seemed there was a sense of relief — even if only for a short time. Now, with the Delta variant of COVID, many people are starting to rethink their public safety and the activities that are healthy for them and their families. For restaurants, that brings uncertainty for the immediate future.

According to QSR Web, a whopping 88% of restaurant owners are afraid that the Delta variant of COVID-19 is going to negatively impact restaurant recovery. While no one wants to face the reality of another lockdown or a similar experience to that at the height of the pandemic, this is a very real fear many businesses, including restaurants, are facing.

CNN explained that the Delta variant is spreading up to 55% faster than the alpha strain that originally swept across the world. Andy Slavitt, a former senior adviser to President Joe Biden's COVID Response Team told CNN that the Delta variant should be thought of as "the 2020 version of COVID-19 on steroids." The Delta variant is already in every U.S. state and makes up 83% of all COVID-19 cases currently. Ultimately, that could mean a swift and potentially life-altering change to many businesses and restaurants should the country have to go into lockdown again.