TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) -- Tupelo mayor Jason Shelton signed an executive order stating all restaurants in the city only be allowed to fulfill takeout orders starting Monday amid the coronavirus outbreak .
Local restaurant owners say they believe the new rules are drastic, but necessary.
"I believe here in Tupelo it's going to be effective, but we're going ahead and closing our dining room areas," said Sweet Peppers owner Bernard Bean.
He says his company is already prepared for whenever dining rooms start to shut down.
"All of our locations either have a pick-up window or curb-side service. You can call your order in or go to online ordering and order," said Bean.
The rstaurant chain, like many others, already fulfill a lot of takeout orders.
"We do a good bit of take out work already. But we are in the process of re-tooling our kitchen so that we can be more efficient at that and handle more volume that we do even with taking out," said general manager Cory Fremont.
Fremont says they will also bring food directly to the customers' cars and hope to keep as many people onboard as possible.