More than 1,000 restaurants in Baja casualties of COVID-19 pandemic

by: Salvador Rivera

Posted: Aug 28, 2020 / 04:22 PM PDT / Updated: Aug 28, 2020 / 05:27 PM PDT

Workers of nightclubs and bars hold a sign reading Responsible reopening in the face of COVID-19 during a march to demand authorities to allow them reopen their business after over four months of being closed due to the new coronavirus pandemic, in downtown Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on August 3, 2020. – Even though restaurants, gyms, cinemas and other business are allowed to operate with some restrictions, night clubs and bars are still shut down, affecting some seven thousand employees and their families according to the march’s organizers. (Photo by Guillermo Arias / AFP) (Photo by GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images)

TIJUANA (Border Report) — More than 1,000 restaurants in Baja California have closed indefinitely and aren’t expected to reopen when normalcy returns.

Miguel Badiola, head of the state’s restaurant and food division for the chamber of commerce, made the prediction. “We’ve lost anywhere from 1,000 to 1,200 restaurants in the state,” he said. “We hope to save the other 10,000 or so restaurants and the 200,000 jobs they generate in Baja California.”

According to Badiola, the state’s restaurant industry is actually doing better than expected.

“We actually expected to lose between 30 and 35 percent of all the restaurants. Fortunately, we’re only in the 10 to 12 percent range.”

As for the city of Tijuana, directly south of San Diego, 75 percent of the restaurants are said to be operating again under strict guidelines according to Badiola.

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