McDonald’s is postponing its reopening plans as coronavirus cases continue to rise across the US. About 1,000 out of McDonald’s 14,000 sites have reopened.
States like Michigan, Colorado and Florida have refrained from reopening their economies as the country faces a surge of coronavirus infections. The average number of new Covid-19 cases surpassed previous records set in April, when some officials claimed the US already reached its peak.
As of mid-June, 1,000 out of McDonald’s 14,000 locations in the US have reopened with limited seating capacity.
Franchisees that have reopened their dining rooms and are not getting any rollbacks from local officials can decide if they want to resume their operations.
“To be clear: owner/operators will make the final decision in these situations,” Joe Erlinger, head of McDonald’s U.S. division, and Mark Salebra, chair of the National Franchisee Leadership Alliance, stated in a note to franchisees on Wednesday that was viewed by CNBC.
They also stressed that franchisees must be disciplined about safety measures. These include proper mask wearing and adherence to wellness and temperature check processes.
“This surge shows nobody is exempt from this virus – even places that previously had very few cases,” they wrote. “Moving forward, we will continue to monitor the situation and adjust as needed to protect the safety of our employees and customers.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported McDonald’s plans to stop reopenings.
Disneyland reopening
Like McDonald's, Disneyland postpones the reopening of its California-based theme parks as they wait for state guidelines on theme park reopening.
State officials have yet to issue theme park reopening guidelines until after July 4. This has led to the postponement of Disneyland’s proposed phased opening of its two parks in Anaheim on July 17.
“Given the time required for us to bring thousands of cast members back to work and restart our business, we have no choice but to delay the reopening of our theme parks and resort hotels until we receive approval from government officials,” the company said in a statement.
Disneyland will announce a new reopening date once it knows the release of the state guidelines and what they will be about.
Meanwhile, Disneyland will open its shopping center, Downtown Disney District, on July 9.
Disneyland workers from Florida asked the company and local government authorities to evaluate the reopening of Disney World next month. Over 8,500 people have signed the online petition as the number of coronavirus cases rise in Florida.
However, it is not certain whether all signees are legitimate Walt Disney employees or if the petition is supported by the union.
Meanwhile, Disney has already resumed its operations in Shanghai and Hong Kong and plans to reopen its parks in Paris and Japan.
Disney chief executive officer (CEO) Bob Chapek previously said the company is “seeing encouraging signs of a gradual return to some sense of normalcy in China”.
“While it’s too early to predict when we’ll be able to begin resuming all of our operations, we are evaluating a number of different scenarios to ensure a cautious, sensible and deliberate approach to the eventual reopening of our parks,” Chapek added.
