n Monday, word slowly began trickling
out of Olympia that restaurants and bars, which have been closed for indoor dining since mid-November, can now adopt new COVID-19 safety guidelines defining open-air dining. As early as Tuesday, several establishments across the Spokane area announced they d begin seating customers inside at 25 percent capacity while keeping open all bay-style doors, usually reserved for warm weather, to increase outside airflow. The new open-air rules came just days before many restaurants across the region saw recent investments in temporary outdoor structures, mostly thin-walled event tents, badly damaged in the historic Jan. 13 windstorm. Under the new guidelines from the governor s office, open air seating is defined as a structure with one or more permeable exterior walls, allowing outside air to easily exchange within occupied seating areas and maintain carbon dioxide levels below 450ppm.