PA Department of Health Secretary orders public health safety measures for essential businesses that includes mask wearing for customers and employees

State Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine on Wednesday ordered a list of safety measures essential businesses must implement by Sunday, April 19 in light of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The order applies to businesses the state has deemed as essential, including grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies, distributors, and others.

According to the order, businesses must:

• Clean and disinfect high-touch areas routinely in accordance with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in spaces that are accessible to customers, tenants, or other individuals.
• Maintain pre-existing cleaning protocols established by the business for all other areas of the building.
• Establish protocols for execution upon discovery that the business has been exposed to a person who is a probable or confirmed case of COVID-19.
• Stagger work start and stop times for employees when practicable to prevent gatherings of large groups entering or leaving the premises at the same time.
• Provide sufficient amount of space for employees to have breaks and meals while maintaining a social distance of 6 feet, while arranging seating to have employees facing forward and not across from each other in eating and break settings.
• Stagger employee break times to reduce the number of employees on break at any given time so that appropriate social distancing of at least 6 feet may be followed.
• Limit persons in employee common areas (such as locker or break rooms, dining facilities, training or conference rooms) at any one time to the number of employees that can maintain a social distance of 6 feet.
• Conduct meetings and trainings virtually (i.e., by phone or through the internet). If a meeting must be held in person, limit the meeting to the fewest number of employees possible, not to exceed 10 employees at one time, and maintain a social distance of 6 feet.
• Provide employees access to regular handwashing with soap, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes and ensure that common areas (including but not limited to break rooms, locker rooms, dining facilities, rest rooms, conference or training rooms) are cleaned on a regular basis, including between any shifts.
• Provide masks for employees to wear during their time at the business, and make it a mandatory requirement to wear masks while on the work site, except to the extent an employee is using break time to eat or drink, in accordance with the guidance from the Department of Health and the CDC. Employers may approve masks obtained or made by employees in accordance with Department of Health guidance.
• Ensure that the facility has a sufficient number of employees to perform all measures listed effectively and in a manner that ensures the safety of the public and employees.
• Ensure that the facility has a sufficient number of personnel to control access, maintain order, and enforce social distancing of at least 6 feet.
• Prohibit non-essential visitors from entering the premises of the business; and ensure that all employees are made aware of these required procedures by communicating them, either orally or in writing, in their native or preferred language, as well as in English or by a methodology that allows them to understand.
• Where feasible, businesses should conduct business with the public by appointment only and to the extent that this is not feasible, businesses must limit occupancy to no greater than 50% of the number stated on the applicable certificate of occupancy at any given time, as necessary to reduce crowding in the business, and must maintain a social distance of 6 feet at check-out and counter lines, and must place signage throughout each site to mandate social distancing for both customers and employees.
• Based on the building size and number of employees, alter hours of business so that the business has sufficient time to clean or to restock or both.
• Install shields or other barriers at registers and check-out areas to physically separate cashiers and customers or take other measures to ensure social distancing of customers from check-out personnel, or close lines to maintain a social distance between of 6 feet between lines.
• Encourage use of online ordering by providing delivery or pick-up options.
• Designate a specific time for high-risk and elderly persons to use the business at least once every week if there is a continuing in-person customer-facing component.
• Require all customers to wear masks while on premises, and deny entry to individuals not wearing masks, unless the business is providing medication, medical supplies, or food, in which case the business must provide alternative methods of pick-up or delivery of such goods; however, individuals who cannot wear a mask due to a medical condition (including children under the age of 2 years per CDC guidance) may enter the premises and are not required to provide documentation of such medical condition.
• In businesses with multiple check-out lines, only use every other register, or fewer. After every hour, rotate customers and employees to the previously closed registers. Clean the previously open registers and the surrounding area, including credit card machines, following each rotation.
• Schedule handwashing breaks for employees at least every hour.
• Where carts and handbaskets are available for customers’ use, assign an employee to wipe down carts and handbaskets before they become available to each customer entering the premises.

The order takes effect at 8 p.m. on April 19. Most PFMA members have already been implementing many of these safety measures prior to the order.

Read the full order here.

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