15,770 US restaurants have permanently closed

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devasating effect on the US on-trade, with 15,770 restaurants having closed permanently according to a report by Yelp.

As reported by Business Insider, 15,770 of the 26,160 US restaurants on Yelp’s platform that have been closed since March are now permanent closures. According to Yelp, California has had the highest number of permanent closures since the lockdown, followed by Texas and New York.

The Golden State accounts for 14.4% of all US restaurants on the Yelp platform that have gone out of business, Texas 8.5% and New York 8.4%.

With a second wave of shutdowns having been enforced across America, Yelp belives many more permanent closures are on the horizon.

“We anticipate states will roll back or delay reopening plans, which will inevitably impact the future success of businesses, possibly turning even more temporary closures into permanent ones,” Justin Norman, vice president of data science at Yelp, told Business Insider.

“Unfortunately, we do expect closures to continue. The virus isn’t going anywhere soon, so businesses will need to be resilient.

“That said, we are seeing temporary closures reduce, which is a promising signal for many businesses,” Norman added.

The restaurant industry has been one of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic. Last week California governor Gavin Newsom shut down indoor restaurants, breweries and bars across the state due to a spike in cases and an increasing number of residents being hospitalised with the virus.