Lincoln County approved for exceptions to statewide closure orders

Lincoln County issued the following press release Monday

Posted 5/5/20

Lincoln County opens for business

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Lincoln County approved for exceptions to statewide closure orders

Lincoln County issued the following press release Monday

Posted

Lincoln County has been granted a variance to Statewide Public Health Order #1, allowing restaurants to open indoor service with restrictions. This variance is effective immediately. The County Health Officer continues to review variance requests for other types of business as well, and any further variances will be announced upon completion and approval.

Restaurants, Cafés, Coffeehouses, and other similar places of public accommodation offering food or beverages for on-premises consumption, shall be authorized to operate under Statewide Order #1 with the following restrictions:

1. Tables shall be limited to groups of 6, preferably of the same household.

2. Tables with guests must be at least 6 feet apart, from edge to edge.

3. In waiting areas, a 6 foot distance must be maintained between parties.

4. Maintain signage to remind individuals from separate parties to stand at least 6 feet apart; waiting area has floor markers to indicate proper spacing.

5. Staff should wear face coverings at all times and perform hand hygiene between interactions with each table.

6. Staff must be screened at the beginning of the shift for symptoms of the illness and staff must be screened for exposure to a person with COVID-19 infection during the previous 14 days.

7. Staff with symptoms of illness, or known exposure to a person with COVID-19 infection within the previous 14 days, shall not be allowed to work.

8. The facility must maintain a record of customer usage, by date and time, and a record of staff working hours, by date and time for purposes of COVID-29 tracing, in the event that contact tracing is necessary. If this record keeping is done manually, sanitizing measures must be taken on the instruments used for record keeping in between use.

9. Cups, lids, napkins and straws must be handed directly to customers by staff.

10. Staff must avoid touching items that have been placed on the table. The table will be cleared by a dedicated staff member once all guests have left.

11. Dedicated staff member sanitizes the area occupied by customers upon departure including tables, menus, pens, salt and pepper shakers etc. Consider the use of disposable items if necessary.

12. The restaurant may not operate if PPE, EPA-approved disinfectants and sanitizers, soap and other necessary cleaning supplies are not available.

13. Hand sanitizer must be available immediately adjacent to bathrooms.

14. Restaurant must be closed for cleaning and disinfecting in the morning, afternoon, and evening. All tables, chairs, door handles, floors, bathrooms, and any high-touch surfaces must be cleaned and disinfected.

15. No self-serve food service or buffet options unless food is pre-packaged.

16. To-go boxes, pizza boxes, paper cups, and any other paper product that touches food must be treated as food.

17. Staff must use gloves when handling ready-to-eat foods (including ice). Gloves are not required when handling foods that have yet to be cooked.

18. Playgrounds in restaurants remain closed.

This variance does not apply to bars, taverns, brew pubs, breweries, microbreweries, distillery pubs, wineries, tasting rooms, special licensees, clubs, and other places of public accommodation offering alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption, however, if any of these establishments serve food for on premises consumption as part of their business, they would be allowed to do so, but would be subject to those restrictions as outlined above.

CONTINUED PRECAUTIONS ADVISED

As health orders are relaxed, it remains important that residents continue physical distancing, frequent hand washing, limiting group size, and wearing face coverings in public spaces when distancing is difficult to maintain. Variances can remain in place so long as health metrics for the area remain within guidelines set by the state.