In a joint press conference today, Monday, May 3, city of St. Louis mayor Tishaura Jones and St. Louis County executive Sam Page announced they would be taking new strides to align in scaling back pandemic safety guidelines. “Over the past few months, we’ve seen the supply of vaccinations increase to where they’re now accessible to everyone,” Dr. Page said, adding that over 100 million Americans are now fully vaccinated.
As a result, they’ve decided that it’s time for restaurants and bars to return to full capacity (from the current 50% capacity) as long as tables are spaced 6 feet apart. Restrictions on closing times – most recently, midnight – have also been removed, meaning that 3 a.m. institutions will be able to return to normal hours.
Both vaccinated and unvaccinated people are still required to wear masks and socially distance at a minimum of 6 feet inside public establishments, but fully vaccinated people gathering outside no longer need to mask up, per recent guidelines announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is unclear how returning to full capacity and still maintaining 6 feet of social distancing is to be handled; ostensibly, it will be up to the restaurants to mediate these two concepts at their discretion.
The public officials also acknowledged that not all St. Louisans are vaccinated yet, and so are attempting to make it easy for people who want the shots to get them. Mayor Jones encouraged unvaccinated citizens to visit the community vaccination center at the Dome downtown to get a first or second Pfizer shot seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; free parking is available, as are public transportation waivers for those who need them.
This article appears in May 2021.