Covid’s Return in Northeast Fails to Discourage Dining Out

(Bloomberg) -- The signs of a nascent Covid-19 resurgence in the Northeast are all around, but that’s not stifling anyone’s appetite.

New York and New Jersey on Thursday recorded the most new cases since mid-May, but in those states, as well as Connecticut and Pennsylvania, reservation data from OpenTable showed that numbers of seated diners held steady or continued climbing from pandemic lows.

A similar tendency could be observed in Google’s community mobility data, which tracks visitors to places such as retail stores and transit centers relative to the pre-Covid baseline.

States and cities have used public-health restrictions throughout the pandemic, but fear has often prompted societies to self-regulate -- and that behavior ultimately matters most. In the Sun Belt surge that started in June, cities including Miami and Phoenix drastically changed their movement patterns -- cutting back on restaurant visits, for instance -- and experts say that’s partially why they stemmed their outbreaks.

Across the U.S., there were 50,295 new Covid-19 cases reported Wednesday, bringing the total to 7.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University data. On a rolling seven-day basis, average new cases reached 45,229, the highest since late August. On a per capita basis, the Midwest and West are the areas of greatest concern.

More than 212,000 Americans have died.

Elsewhere:

• Illinois recorded 3,059 new cases, the highest single-day tally since May, excluding a day in September when the state released backlogged data. The state’s rolling seven-day virus positivity rate is about 3.7%, and its hospitalization and intensive-care unit bed use for Covid-19 patients is ticking up.
• Current Covid-19 hospitalizations hit records in Wisconsin, South Dakota and Montana, and held at record levels in North Dakota, according to Covid Tracking Project data.
• In Connecticut, Covid hospitalizations reached the highest since June; New York the highest since July; New Jersey and Pennsylvania the highest since early August.
• New York City is closing an additional 61 public schools, bringing the total to 169 sites.

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