Why Only Ten for Churches and Restaurants but More for Buses?

Michael Peyrefitte

Notwithstanding the mortality rate associated with COVID-19, we asked the Attorney General this morning about the rationale behind limiting restaurants and churches to ten persons while allowing buses and other forms of public transportation to carry more than ten passengers within proximity of each other.  Here’s how he responded to that comparison.

Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General

“We don’t expect people to keep their masks on when they are eating.  I have yet to see them create a mask that would allow you to have it on, protect yourself, protect others and then drink and eat at the same time.  In the restaurant you would have to actually take off the mask to eat and drink, so you’re exposing yourself right in that moment there.  So then we believe that you need less persons to have it functioning rather than a bus, where everybody on that bus must sanitize before they go on the bus, must wear their mask and there must only be seating capacity.  We think that with the requirement that you must keep on the mask on the public transportation then that is a safer place for you to have more people.  And then when it comes to public transportation, like we said before, we have to learn as well to manage the risks and we believe that there are certain cases where it’s difficult to limit it to ten people.”