Sponsored By

Trending this week: how restaurants are adjusting to coronavirus in the U.S. , Chipotle Mexican Grill testing unlimited paid time offTrending this week: how restaurants are adjusting to coronavirus in the U.S. , Chipotle Mexican Grill testing unlimited paid time off

See what's popular on NRN.com.

NRN staff

March 12, 2020

10 Slides
GettyImages 1205778445

Already have an account?

jarun011 / iStock / Getty Images Plus

With the rise of stories circulating the news on COVID-19 and the impact on restaurants across the country, it's no surprise that most of our top performing stories for this week were on the coronavirus pandemic.

Most restaurants in the U.S. are so far keeping their doors open and have taken a preventative response to the pandemic. Basic precautions – like hand-washing for at least 20 seconds and cleaning surfaces – have been suggested by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Starbucks has been updating its store-level cleaning routine, according to a memo reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. “We are increasing the frequency of our Starbucks cleanliness procedures and continue to take guidance from the CDC and our local health authorities.”

With restaurants preparing to protect their employees and customers from the COVID-19 outbreak, we’ve rounded up the best tech-forward tools to prevent the spread of diseases like coronavirus, including innovations for improved hand washing.

Meanwhile, the casual dining giant Olive Garden is now providing sick leave for hourly workers previously not covered by the company.

The new paid sick leave policy became effective Monday, impacting about 180,000 hourly workers who until now would not get paid if unable to work due to illness.

Related:These 4 tools can help restaurants combat the effects of coronavirus

To check out what else happened this past week, click through the gallery to see what was trending on Nation's Restaurant News. 

Read more about:

Olive Garden
Subscribe Nation's Restaurant News Newsletters
Get the latest breaking news in the industry, analysis, research, recipes, consumer trends, the latest products and more.