Maryland counties that have banned indoor dining are responding to a lawsuit brought against them by the state’s restaurant association.

Gov. Larry Hogan has reduced indoor dining at restaurants to 50%, and allowed counties to take stricter measures to stop the spread of COVID-19. Montgomery and Prince George’s counties banned indoor dining earlier this week. Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks is still allowing restaurants to have 50% capacity for outdoor seating.

Gina Ford, a spokesperson for Alsobrooks, said the county has taken steps to disperse $7.6 million to restaurateurs through the county’s restaurant resilience fund and additional funds made available through the county’s $20 million business recovery initiative.

“All of our efforts throughout this challenging time have been, not only to sustain restaurants, but to ensure they recover after COVID-19 leaves our community,” Ford wrote to DCist/WAMU in an email. “Throughout this pandemic, we have worked in lock-step with our health officials to make difficult decisions to preserve the health and lives of Prince Georgians.”

However, Marshall Weston, president of the Restaurant Association of Maryland, believes there’s no evidence that indoor dining is associated with COVID-19 infection. Weston said if these restrictions continue without substantial relief from the government, 45% of state restaurants may close within six months. That would add to the more than 100,000 restaurant employees who have been reportedly laid off or furloughed since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Weston.

“Restaurants are the backbone of every community and neighborhood and we cannot allow for this to happen,” Weston said at a Friday press conference.

He said restaurants, like Siebels Restaurant in Montgomery County, face the impossible task of trying to survive with limited indoor dining and carryout.

Lynn Martin, the owner of Siebels, said she started with 45 employees at the beginning of the year. She now only has three.

“Today I notified all of my employees to file for unemployment that I did not know when they would come back,” Martin said. “Quite frankly, I will probably close Jan. 1 without indoor dining.”

She said she can no longer provide retirement savings or health care benefits to her employees. She said after her Paycheck Protection Program funding ran out, she could no longer afford rent. Martin still has to pay property taxes, though, which are about $15,000. That total is $2,000 more than what she has made in revenue so far this month.

“For the first time in 35 years, I can’t tell my employees that everything will be okay,” Martin said as she held back tears. “It’s an emotional time. I’ve always been able to do what my father told me to do, take care of the people that take care of you.”

Martin added that she has no problem being the “mask police” in her restaurant and practicing social distancing, but she said restaurants that don’t follow COVID protocols should be shut down by the health department.

Geoff Trout, owner of a string of IHOPs in Prince George’s County, agrees and said his restaurant is safe because it faces multiple state, county, and independent compliance checks each year.

“We operate safely. We’re one of the safest places you can be. We’re clean,” Trout said. “We need to put our employees back to work and stop this game playing of mandates and here’s Congress playing around with our stimulus bill.”

But Justin Lessler, an association professor of epidemiology at John Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, said there is a “very clear association between going to restaurants and infection.”

“The fact of the matter is in a restaurant or bar, you’re going to have to take your mask off otherwise you can’t eat,” Lessler told DCist/WAMU.

Lessler said more research is needed to figure out infection rates with each level of restriction to mitigate transmission.

“But certainly the only way to eliminate transmission in restaurants is to ban indoor dining all together,” Lessler said.

Earlier this week, an Anne Arundel County judge approved an injunction to halt County Executive Steuart Pittman’s order banning indoor dining. The judge’s decision allows the county’s restaurants to stay open at 25% capacity indoors and 50% capacity outdoors until Dec. 28. County officials say they do not plan to appeal and await the upcoming hearing.