Report restaurants not following CDC guidelines

At Governor Tate Reeves’ daily coronavirus briefing, state health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs addressed the issues with restaurants and businesses not following CDC guidelines for COVID-19.

Across the state and here on the Coast, numerous complaints have been reported of restaurant employees either not wearing masks, not spacing customers at least six feet apart, and are overcapacity in buildings, violating CDC guidelines and executive orders issued by the governor.

Dr. Dobbs says if you notice a restaurant not following the rules you can notify the department of health through an online complaint form on their website.

The health department will also pay a visit to restaurants suspected of not following protocol. “We’ve had some of this happen visiting multiple restaurants so far. And once we meet with folks and make sure they understand and they understand that we’re going to pay attention this, we’ve had some pretty good compliance so far. But, if it’s a safety issue and a restaurant is absolutely unwilling to comply with the necessary safety standards, yes, we will close them down. We close restaurants down for other hygiene issues. You know, hepatitis A outbreaks, salmonella outbreaks, it’s just a different infection. We do believe though, that with some collaborative, positive reinforcement that we can get pretty near universal compliance. But when we do hear about it, we’re going to make sure we get them where they need to go.”

A reminder for guidelines under the executive order, all employees at restaurants must be screened daily, no more than 50 percent of seating capacity, hand sanitizer must be provided at all entry and exit doors, and no more than six customers per table.

There are COVID-19 executive order ‘cheat sheets’ available online as well.