MEXICO CITY Amid the developing swine flu outbreak, U.S. restaurant companies with locations in Mexico City are making the best of a government-mandated shutdown of dine-in service.
While some operators continue to seek incremental sales by offering takeout, others are taking the opportunity to address maintenance during the mandated time their restaurants are empty. Nonetheless, the hit to business, while yet unquantifiable, is undeniable.
Michelle King, a spokeswoman for Canton, Mass.-based Dunkin’ Brands Inc. said: “Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins’ franchise owners in Mexico City are required to comply fully with the order set forth by the interior secretary of Mexico City. At this time all of our stores in Mexico City are open and limiting sales to takeout as instructed by the local authorities.”
Local fine-dining operator Jordi Escofet, who owns the award-winning La Cava in Mexico City, said he has closed his restaurant according to orders. “We have been told to remain closed until May 6, but I think the government will probably prolong that. It’s terrible. The situation is not very fair.”
In the interim, he said he is keeping some of his staff busy addressing maintenance needs. Escofet said he believes some restaurant hotels in the city have been allowed to remain open to feed their guests.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday reported that the number of confirmed U.S. cases of swine flu had risen to 109 in 11 states: California, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas. The lone swine-flu-related death in the United States so far involved a Mexican national toddler, with underlying health problems, who died in a Houston hospital after suffering flu symptoms while visiting Brownsville, Texas, according to the CDC and news reports.
On Wednesday, the Geneva-based World Health Organization took the unprecedented step of raising its pandemic alert level to phase 5 of six phases, and director-general Dr. Margaret Chan advised all countries to activate their pandemic preparedness plans.
To answer Americans’ questions about swine flu and public health preparations for what could soon become a worldwide pandemic, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday hosted a webcast on those subjects and other related topics. The webcast is available at www.hhs.gov/ and www.cdc.gov.
The Associated Press was reporting Wednesday that of 2,498 illnesses across Mexico so far believed to be tied to swine flu, only 1,311 people with suspected cases remain hospitalized and that admissions and death records at Mexican hospitals suggest the outbreak may have peaked last week. Though Mexican officials had confirmed only seven deaths from swine flu as of Tuesday, the Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that some public health officials believe as many as 160 deaths in Mexico may be linked to the outbreak.
CDC and World Health Organization officials continued to remind people that swine flu is not spread through the consumption of pork and that it is safe to eat pork as long as it is fully cooked to prevent all types of possible foodborne illness.
The WHO’s Chan said in a statement at her group’s website: “This change to a higher phase of alert is a signal to governments, to ministries of health and other ministries, to the pharmaceutical industry and the business community that certain actions should now be undertaken with increased urgency, and at an accelerated pace.”
The most important question right now concerns the severity of the outbreak, Chan said. “It is possible that the full clinical spectrum of this disease goes from mild illness to severe disease," she said.
She added, “From past experience, we also know that influenza may cause mild disease in affluent countries, but more severe disease, with higher mortality, in developing countries.”
The WHO leader concluded, “No matter what the situation is, the international community should treat this as a window of opportunity to ramp up preparedness and response.”
To read Chan's full statement, go to: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2009/h1n1_20090429/en/index.html.
The National Restaurant Association is providing information to operators about the swine flu outbreak at http://www.restaurant.org/swineflu/.
Contact Paul Frumkin at [email protected] and Alan J. Liddle at [email protected].