August 26, 2020

Mask Order

The Jackson County Health Department amended the mask order to reflect changes regarding persons with exemptions. The amended order goes into effect today, August 21. The order states that businesses may allow entry and serve customers with exemptions. Exemptions include:

• Those who are deaf or hard of hearing
• Children younger than five years old; and
  • Children who are younger than two years old should never wear face coverings due to the risk of suffocation.
  • Children who are two, three, or four years old, with the assistance and close supervision of an adult, are strongly recommended to wear a face covering at all times in settings, like grocery stores or pharmacies, where it is likely that a distance of at least six feet cannot be maintained from non-household members and vulnerable people must go.
• Persons with a medical condition, mental health condition, or disability that prevents wearing a face covering. This includes, but is not limited to, persons with a medical condition for whom wearing a face covering could obstruct breathing or who are unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove a face covering without assistance. 

Due to this change in the mask order, we’ve updated our blog regarding how businesses should handle the mask order. 

If a customer enters your business without a mask, you can ask them:

• Is (not wearing a mask) an accommodation?
   
• Are you not wearing a mask due to a disability or valid medical exemption?

If the answer is affirmative, the customer may enter. If their answer is negative, the business may provide an accommodation or they must refuse service. Your employees MAY NOT inquire as to the nature of the person’s disability, request documentation of a medical condition or disability, or require that a person state their disability. 

The mask order will still be enforced in Eastern Jackson County. The standard of a businesses’ compliance is whether they are actively checking with customers who come in without a mask. The business will not be penalized for letting customers with exemptions in without a mask as long as employees are actively checking that they have an exemption.

Employees Experiencing COVID-19

It is no longer the requirement, nor recommended, that employees receive two negative COVID-19 tests before returning to work. Determining when an employee can return to work should follow the CDC’s symptom-based strategy:

• At least 10 days* have passed since symptoms first appeared and
• At least 24 hours have gone by without a fever and without the use of fever-reducing medication and
• Symptoms have improved

If the employee had no symptoms:

• At least 10 days have passed since the date of the first positive RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 RNA

This information has been updated and can be found in our blog post ‘Guidance for Businesses When Employees Experience COVID-19’.