New Hampshire Restaurants Will Take Patrons' COVID-19 Contact Tracing Info

New Hampshire restaurants will be requiring patrons to provide contact information in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Governor Chris Sununu said customers will be asked to provide their name and phone number, and restaurants will record their time of arrival beginning on Saturday, WMUR reports. The new requirement will help contact tracing teams use the information to learn if someone eating at the restaurant has COVID-19.

"Is it a little bit of a challenge for the industry? Yes it is," said Mike Somers, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association via WMUR. "Does it certainly create a little bit of pushback from some of our customers? We suspect it likely will."

The Department of Health and Human Services made the decision in an effort to have restaurant owners assist health officials with contact tracing and avoid public announcements while attempting to contact track down patrons after a positive case is confirmed and identified.

"Clearly, that created a great deal of concern from the industry that now we're making this huge impression that restaurants aren't safe to dine at," Somers said via WMUR.

New Hampshire restaurants have been connected to several clusters of COVID-19 cases during the pandemic and state contact tracers have attempted to contact everyone who was in the restaurants. A public health alert was issued to try to track down patrons who were potentially infected in previous cases where it was difficult to locate everyone.

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