NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 25, 2020
Rebecca McLeod, Public Health Director
Lisa Moore, Burke County Public Information Officer
Michael Willis, Emergency Management Director
Governor Cooper’s Safer At Home Phase 2 Extended
Yesterday Governor Cooper extended Phase 2 in NC for another 3 weeks and added the requirement of face coverings within NC. This extension includes the same guidelines that started in Phase 2 including people gathering for social purposes:
• No more than 10 people indoors and social distancing
• No more than 25 people outdoors and social distancing
Sporting and entertaining events can happen, but spectators are limited to the same gathering as above, 10 people indoors and 25 outdoors.
This extension of the order includes the requirement of wearing a face covering inside or outside where you CANNOT physically distant yourself more than 6 feet from others. Including the following:
• Retail Businesses: Retail businesses must have all workers wear face coverings. Retail businesses must also have all customers wear face coverings when they are inside the establishment and may be within six feet of another person, unless the customer comes under an exception identified in the Order. If a customer states that an exception applies, the retailer should try to make an accommodation. The business may choose to provide curbside service, provide home delivery, allow the customer to enter without a face covering, or use some other reasonable measure to deliver goods.
• Restaurants: Restaurants must have all workers wear face coverings. Restaurants must also have all customers wear face coverings when not at their table, unless the customer comes under an exception identified in the Order.
• Personal Care, Grooming, and Tattoo Businesses: Personal care, grooming, and tattoo businesses must have workers wear face coverings. These businesses must also have all customers wear face coverings when they are inside the establishment and may be within feet of another person, unless an individual has an exception as outlined in the Order. If a customer states that an exception applies, the business may choose to have the customer wait outside for his or her appointment rather than sitting in a waiting room. Customers may take off their face coverings if they are receiving a facial treatment, shave, or other services on a part of the head which the face covering covers or by which the face covering is secured.
• Child Care Facilities: Childcare, day camps, and overnight camps must have workers and all other adults wear face coverings. All children eleven years and older must also wear face coverings on site unless they have an exception. Children under two should not wear a face covering.
• State Government Employees: State government agencies headed by members of the Governor’s Cabinet must have their on-site workers wear face coverings. Other state and local government agencies are strongly encouraged to adopt similar policies.
• Transportation: All workers and riders on public or private vehicles, as well as all people in North Carolina airports, bus and train stations or stops, must wear face coverings. Passengers will not be denied access to public transportation for failure to use face coverings. This provision does not apply to people traveling alone with household members or friends in their personal vehicles, but does apply to ride-shares like Ubers and Lyfts, cabs, vans, and shuttles, even if the vehicles are privately owned.
• Manufacturing, Construction Sites, Agricultural Settings: Social distancing is difficult where multiple workers are together in manufacturing settings, at construction sites, and in migrant farm, other farm, and agricultural settings. This Order specifies that manufacturing, construction, and agriculture businesses or operations must require workers to wear face coverings.
• Meat or Poultry Processing Plants: All workers in any meat or poultry processing plant, packing plant, or slaughterhouse must wear surgical masks, as long as surgical mask supplies are available. If surgical masks are not available, cloth face coverings must be provided.
• Long Term Care Facilities: All workers in long term care (LTC) facilities, including skilled nursing facilities, adult care homes, family care homes, mental health group homes, and intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities, must wear surgical masks while in the facility, as long as surgical mask supplies are available.
Here are the face covering exemptions:
• Should not wear a face covering due to any medical or behavioral condition or disability (including, but not limited to, any person who has trouble breathing, or is unconscious or incapacitated, or is otherwise unable to put on or remove the face covering without assistance); • Is under eleven years of age;
• Is actively eating or drinking;
• Is strenuously exercising;
• Is seeking to communicate with someone who is hearing-impaired in a way that requires the mouth to be visible;
• Is giving a speech for a broadcast or to an audience;
• Is working at home or is in a personal vehicle;
• Is temporarily removing his or her face covering to secure government or medical services or for identification purposes;
• Would be at risk from wearing a face covering at work, as determined by local, state, or federal regulators or workplace safety guidelines;
• Has found that their face covering is impeding visibility to operate equipment or a vehicle; and/or
• Is a child whose parent, guardian, or responsible person has been unable to place the face covering safely on the child’s face.
Face coverings are to cover your NOSE AND MOUTH at all times. Do not touch your eyes, nose and mouth when removing or adjusting the face covering and wash your hands immediately or use hand sanitizer after removing or adjusting the mask.
The following is how the face covering requirement will be enforced:
• Citations related to this order can be written to businesses or organizations that fail to enforce the requirement
• Law enforcement personnel cannot criminally enforce the face covering requirements under this order again individual workers or customers.
People wishing to report businesses or groups not complying with the new order extension can call the non-emergency number for law enforcement at 828-437-1911.
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