The Summit County Health Department issued another public health order Monday, further restricting gatherings and business operations in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
More than one week after Summit County’s initial order limiting the operations of restaurants, entertainment venues and other places where large groups of people gather, Summit County Health Director Rich Bullough and County Attorney Margaret Olson approved an order that does the following:
- Prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people, though grocery stores and families in the same household are not included in that directive
- Implements additional hygiene and cleanliness precautions at construction sites; prohibits construction employees from gathering in groups and ensures employees who exhibit COVID-19 symptoms are not allowed to work
- Restricts operations at hair, nail and tanning salons, including rules for sanitation and hygiene and requires shops to operate at 50% or less occupancy
- Restricts physical therapy clinic operations by closing lobbies to patients, implementing remote or telehealth therapy visits for non-essential services
- Changes protocols for dental clinics to prevent spread of COVID-19
- Requires child care centers to evaluate the health of employees and children each day; ask a child’s guardian about the health of other family members; and take additional sanitation and hygiene precautions
A violation of any part of the order could result in a class B misdemeanor, though Bullough says it’s not the county’s intention to punish people. As the county has rolled out previous orders, Bullough says most everyone is already complying with them.
“Technically, yes, we can issue and we can go after a class B misdemeanor," Bullough said. "We’ve not had to do anything like that, and it’s a real important point to highlight that the community, to be honest with you, they’re ahead of us on this.”
Bullough says much of Monday’s public health order is in response to requests from businesses that weren’t included in the county’s orders from last week. Construction companies, day cares and salons didn’t have any rules or best practices in place from professional organizations, so the health department laid out the standards for them.
More than anything, Bullough says the order outlines important guidelines for businesses and communities to follow.
“We need to all behave as if we’ve been exposed, and we need to all social distance from people as if they’ve been exposed.”
The county will re-evaluate the public health order in two weeks, though the order doesn’t expire until April 22.
