Starting Friday, June 19 at 5 p.m. employees of all St. Petersburg businesses will be required to wear a face mask.
Mayor Rick Kriseman made the announcement on Wednesday during a Facebook Live conference, citing rising COVID-19 cases in Pinellas County.
“All St. Pete businesses, including restaurants, bars, gyms, retail establishments, entertainment businesses and personal service businesses, such as barber shops and salons will be required to have their employees wear a face mask or covering while in areas of the business, open to the public,” Kriseman said.
Kriseman added that his order will have common sense exceptions for medical conditions, but he was stern in saying that his Facebook announcement was every business’ warning to not violate the order.
“Violation of this order is a municipal ordinance violation, which could result in financial or other business operations related sanctions,” Kriseman said. “Consider this your warning.”
In his remarks, Kriseman lauded St. Petersburg for its initial response to the coronavirus pandemic, but he said St. Pete’s community spread of COVID-19 is “largely due to young adults letting their guard down—the data, and the many closures of our downtown bars and restaurants, paint a clear picture for us.”
He also mentioned that an order requiring customers to wear masks is in the works.
Kriseman also evoked Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch in saying that, “folks seem to have gotten the wrong message that reopening means business as usual.”
He agreed with Welch and added that restarting his city doesn’t get it back to normal.
“It gets us back to a new normal that may exist for many months, if not years,” Kriseman said, adding that there’s been an absence in federal and state leadership. He mentioned Gov. Ron DeSantis’ comment that the statewide surge is as a result of increased testing.
“While he’s right that more testing has occurred. He’s wrong that this is what’s causing the surge—simple math tells us that,” Kriseman said.
“He also blamed it on infections in long term care facilities jails, and even among migrant workers. As it related to St. Pete, he’s wrong about as well,” Kriseman added, alluding back to the community spread among young adults.
Over the last week, close to a dozen Tampa Bay restaurants and bars have closed after employees either tested positive for COVID-19 or were exposed to it. In the past few days, Creative Loafing Tampa Bay alone has reported a changes in operations at three bars near Jannus Live, Hawkers Asian restaurant on Central Avenue, Meat Market in Tampa’s Hyde Park Village plus both locations of Tampa Bay Brewing Co. That’s not including announced changes in operation at four popular St. Petersburg hotspots the Galley, Park & Rec, Avenue Eat + Drink and Copa.
Kriseman said that data makes the point that the city needs even more people doing things “the right way… the St. Pete way.” He said that an update sent to him last week showed Pinellas County with 2,469 test results received on June 8.
“Out of those only 1.8% of those tests were positive, 45 people,” Kriseman said. “Yesterday’s test totals in Pinellas County was 1918, about a 6.6% positivity rate. That’s 136 people.”
“So more test doesn’t necessarily equate to more positives Mr. Governor—positives equate to more positives,” Kriseman said. He added that a two-week trend is headed in a the wrong direction, but still shows Pinellas in that under 5% positive threshold often cited by folks who refuse to wear masks.
Reactions to Kriseman’s Wednesday announcement wonder why customers aren’t required to wear masks, but Rick has a plan for that, too.
“I have further asked our city attorney’s office to draft an order requiring that all residents wear a mask when entering businesses or other indoor places, shared by groups of people,” Kriseman said, adding that there would be common sense exceptions for people inside of personal residences or seated at a table of a restaurant.
Kriseman reiterated that his resident mask wearing order is not complete; he does not plan to enact it prior to this weekend. He does, however, encourage residents to start wearing masks inside businessed if they aren’t already.
“We’ve all seen the signs: ‘No shoes, no shirt, no service.’ Well, I’m going to suggest you add masks to that, with or without a city order,” Kriseman said. “So if someone is in violation, or they refuse to put on a mask or to leave. Call us. We have your back.”
Kriseman encouraged narcs and concerned citizens to call St. Petersburg Police’s non-emergency number (727-289-37780) or email action@stpete.org when they report violations.
Support local journalism in these crazy days. Our small but mighty team is working tirelessly to bring you up to the minute news on how Coronavirus is affecting Tampa and surrounding areas. Please consider making a one time or monthly donation to help support our staff. Every little bit helps.
Follow @cl_tampabay on Twitter to get the most up-to-date news + views. Subscribe to our newsletter, too.
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2020.
