Temperature sensors, fewer tables, and masked waiters: Here's what dining out could look like across the US when stay-at-home orders are relaxed

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a plan Tuesday designed to eventually loosen stay-at-home restrictions in the state.
• The modifications hinge on six factors that need to be considered, but even if restrictions are relaxed, life still could look a lot different than we're used to.
• Restaurants could have fewer tables, with disposable menus, and customers could have to have their temperature taken before entering.
• As one of the first states to enforce a shelter-in-place order, California is in some ways serving as a model for the rest of the US on how to respond to the virus.
• The state's tentative reopening plan could also provide a template for how restaurants across the US could reopen as well.
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As much of the country continues sheltering in place during the COVID-19 health crisis, many are wondering when the orders to stay home may lift and normal life could resume.

On Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom gave some indication of what that could look like for the state when he unveiled a plan for eventually loosening restrictions of the statewide stay-at-home order issued on March 19.

Newsom said that six criteria would need to be met before state leaders could proceed with modifying the order, such as an increase in testing and contact tracing. Residents would need to continue to comply with the stay-at-home order, and hospitalization and intensive-care numbers would need to not only flatten but decline, among other key factors.

But even if restrictions are relaxed in some aspects of daily life, things would likely still look very different.

For example, the governor said restaurants could reopen, but there could perhaps be fewer tables, and the menus might be disposable to help prevent unnecessary contact amongst patrons. Your temperature may be taken before you can enter the restaurant, and your waiter may be wearing gloves and a mask, the governor added.

Dine-in restaurants have been instructed to close during the stay-at-home orders ushered in throughout the US. They're allowed to provide food for takeout or delivery, but the measures have still slammed their business as would-be customers are directed to remain inside their homes as much as possible. Many have had to lay off staff as a result.

Part of the goal of loosening the stay-at-home order restrictions is to "get this economy roaring again," Newsom said on Tuesday.

The governor did not attach a timeline to it, but he did say this was an "optimistic" plan for California. Newsom invited reporters to "ask me the question again" in two weeks to see how the state was doing relative to meeting the minimum requirements to consider loosening the restrictions.

"This can't be a permanent state, and I want you to know that it's not," Newsom said.

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