Sarah Palin, who is not vaccinated against the coronavirus, dined indoors on Saturday evening at by Elio , an Italian restaurant on Manh...
Sarah Palin, who is not vaccinated against the coronavirus, dined indoors on Saturday evening at by Elio, an Italian restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that regularly attracts celebrities, despite New York’s requirement that all customers inside show proof of vaccinations. She tested positive for the virus on Monday.
“We just made a mistake,” said Luca Guaitolini, a restaurant manager, who was not working Saturday night but confirmed Ms Palin’s visit. In an interview on Monday, he said the restaurant checks the vaccination cards of all new customers but not regulars who come weekly, and that Ms Palin dined with a longtime guest, whom he declined to name. .
“She probably just walked in and walked” to the table, Mr. Guaitolini said. “We try to get to the bottom of it.”
Lawyers for Ms. Palin did not respond to a request for comment. Mr Guaitolini said the restaurant was informing customers that they had been exposed to the coronavirus and that staff would be tested this week.
Ms Palin, the former governor of Alaska who ran for vice president in 2008, had traveled to New York for the trial of his libel suit against the New York Times. The trial was supposed to start this week, but due to its positive outcome, it will now start on February 3. According to the judge handling the case, lawyers for Ms Palin said she had undergone three Covid tests, all of which came back positive, and that she had not been vaccinated.
Shawn McCreesh, editor for New York Magazine, tweeted Saturday that he had spotted Ms. Palin at Elio’s while dining on Saturday night. (“My mom thought she was Tina Fey,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet.)
Brian Schwartz, political finance reporter at CNBC, tweeted that he had also recently dined at the restaurant and that the staff had not checked his vaccination status.
New York City recorded 8,914 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, according to a Time database, 19,634 less than the previous Sunday. Hospitalizations, which lag behind cases, have risen 106% in the past two weeks.
In light of the highly contagious variant of Omicron, some restaurants have imposed stricter security measures for workers than those required by the government, including keeping Covid tests handy and strictly enforcing the wearing of masks. But at many of those restaurants, including Elio’s, the only requirement for diners is that they be vaccinated.
Elio’s, which opened in 1981 on Second Avenue at East 84th Street, is known for its famous clientele, which has included Tom Hanks, Joan Didion and Mick Jagger. An obituary for restaurant founder Elio Guaitolini, died in 2016, described the place as “an informal clubhouse for Manhattan’s social and media elite”.
Her son, Mr Guaitolini, said Ms Palin “is a controversial person wherever she goes. I just hope she recovers quickly.
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