One restaurant is testing customers temperatures before allowing them into the restaurant amid coronavirus fears. Vikki Vargas reports for NBC4 News at 4 p.m. on Monday, March 9, 2020.
Be prepared to have your temperature checked if you want to eat at Sichuan Impression in Orange County or at one of its sister restaurants in Alhambra and West Los Angeles.
Lilly Lei, the restaurant owner, began checking customers' temperatures at the door with a hand-held infrared thermometer in late January as a response to the coronavirus outbreak.
But customers are not the only ones required to have their temperature checked. Employees are scanned twice a day and are sent home if their temperatures are abnormal.
The owner has friends and family in China and has seen how businesses there have been affected, which prompted her to take action now.
In late January, the owner informed her customers of the protocol on the restaurant's Instagram page. The post said it will began using an infrared thermometer on all customers who wish to eat at Sichuan Impression as a prevention and control measure.
What may seem like an overly precautionary step is going over well with customers.
“They monitor all people coming here and I think it is good to avoid the spread of the virus,” said Kim Nguyen, a customer at the restaurant.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
The owner said she has not received push back from customers or her employees.
“I think it is a good idea because it makes people feel like the restaurant is taking care of them and making them responsible for not letting people with possible symptoms inside the restaurant,” James Qian, a customer at the restaurant said.
This is not the only precaution the restaurant has enforced. Workers disinfect dirty dishes before removing them off the table, wear gloves while bagging take-out orders, and wipe down the chairs.
None of her employees have become ill.
