Reopening the economy: Georgia's Plan for "Reviving a healthy Georgia" under Phase I. General provisions and Restaurants and Dining Services

Last Thursday April 23, 2020 Georgia’s Governor signed an Executive Order (E.O. 04.23.20.02 Providing guidance for reviving a healthy Georgia in response to COVID-19) that lays out Georgia’s plan in accordance with Phase 1 of Federal Guidelines for Opening up America Again.

This Executive Order covers in detail minimum requirements that businesses will need to follow in order to open operations to public while mitigating the risk of transmitting Covid-19 among customers and employees.  It also provides specific regulations to the specific industries and business as well as other regulations divided in: Restaurants and Dining Services (Section IV); Industry, Commerce, Organizations, & Non-Profits (Section V); Healthcare (Section VI); Education & Children (Section VII); County and Municipal Governments (Section VIII); and Drivers’ Service (Section IX).

Below please find some notes based on the content of the new provisions. Due to the extent of the document (26 pages long) in this post we’ll review just the general provisions and those regarding one of the most affected segments in the Food Service the Restaurants and Dining Services:

1.    General provisions

A.     Timeframe and other provisions:

• Provisions of the Order will be effective, except otherwise noted, starting May 1st to May 13th.
• Provisions from Executive Order 04.08.20.04 Regarding the suspension of short-term rentals to help stop the spread of COVID-19 will be extended until May 13th. 2020. 

B.     Who and how is affected by the new rules?

• All residents and visitor of the State of Georgia
• State Businesses and Georgia Business Corporations, Nonprofit Corporations
• Special mention to those with “higher risk of severe illness” as defined by CDC, who are required to Shelter in Place: such as A.- 65 years of age or older; B.- people who live in nursing homes; C.- people who have: i.- chronic lung disease; ii.- moderate to severe asthma, iii.- severe heart disease; iv.- immunocompromised; v.- class III or severe obesity; vi.- other diseases such as diabetes, liver disease, chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis. This category will be allowed to perform/engage in: Essential Services; Necessary Travel; Work in Critical Infrastructure; other minimum necessary activities to maintain the value of a business not classified as Critical Infrastructure. 

C.     Important definitions

• Social distancing: space kept between yourself and other people outside of your home or place of residence. Also refers to assembling in groups, avoid crowded places and avoiding large crowds.
• Gatherings: more than 10 persons physically present in a Single Location, if to be present, persons are required to stand or be seated within 6 feet from each other. It is not considered Gathering if groups of more than 10 people are the result of transitory or incidental, or if grouping is the result of being spread across more than one Single Location.
• Single Location: refers to the space where all persons gathered cannot maintain at least 6 feet of distance between themselves and any other person. In the foodservice industry regarding the Restaurants and dining services the definition is referred to the maximum patrons number per 500 square feet.
• Critical Infrastructure: Executive Order refers to workers, businesses, establishments, corporations, non-profit corporations and organizations included in versions 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 of Guidance on Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers released by the US. Department of HS.
• Essential Services: include activities to maintain and secure: safety, sanitation and essential maintenance of the home or residence, whereas for the same household/family members and/or other family members or people dependent such as children, elderly and people with special needs. It also includes the need for Social Distancing practices while outdoors exercise. Regarding the business, provisions of this Executive Order gives preference to online ordering, home delivery, curbside pick-up. 

D.     Minimum mandates for general population

• Everyone is encouraged to wear face masks when practicable while outside their homes or places of residence, except while eating, drinking and exercising outdoors.
• Practice Social distancing is defined in the E.O. and sanitation practices according to the guidelines published by the CDC. 

E.      It is prohibited:

• Gatherings of more than 10 people except: people who cohabitated, family units, roommates residing together in private homes, whether inside or outside their hommes or place of residence. It does not apply to entities defined as “Critical Infrastructure”.
• People required Shelter in place shall not receive visits except those related to health and medical services, visitors providing supplies and services for the home or residence and other related activities. Nevertheless, those visits must be, to the extent of practicable circumstances, practicing Social Distancing. 

2.    Restaurants and Dining Services

The new regulations that started today April 27th 2020, though May 13th 2020, although allows Restaurants and Dining Services, including those located at private social clubs, to start operations open to public for dine-in services starting today, it does impose strict measures that intent to provide a safe experience for both employees and customers while dining in these businesses.

Among main regulations from this Executive Order, is the definition of Single Location and Gatherings for this specific business type.

It would be understood as Single Location the space of 500 square feet of public space were the business will be able to accommodate no more than 10 patrons.

For calculating the public space for the Single Location space, will be considered the waiting and bar area, nevertheless, it will not take into consideration hallways, restrooms nor the space closed to patrons.

The provisions for Section IV title “Restaurants & Dining Services” will not applied to operations of dine-in services in hospitals, healthcare facilities, nursing homes or others long-term care facilities.

Also, business will need to take measures which mitigate the exposure and spread of Covid-19 among its customers and employees, and those measures among others listed in the Executive Order are:

A.     Referred to workers and employees:

• Screening their health for common Covid-19 symptoms such as fever, cough and shortness of breath.
• Required workers with signs of illness not to report to work or to seek medical attentions.
• Create, maintain, and follow policies regarding when employees who have become ill, are permitted to return to work. Any employee known or suspected Covid-19 must follow CDC guidelines to self-isolate.
• Provide training about importance and expectations of current recommendations on personal hygiene, especially frequent handwashing and use of soap and hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol and avoid touching hands to face.
• Used of face coverings all time while working.
• Social distancing practices including A.- prohibiting: i.- handshaking; ii.- using or sharing others’ personal tools and equipment; iii.- gatherings during work hours; B.- Design plans to avoid contact and maintain safe distances among your employees.
• Ensure the Food Safety Manager certification of the person in charge is up-to-date and provide food handler training to refresh employees.

B.     Regarding Work organization

• Implement staggered shifts and workstations to avoid workers standing next to one another or include other mitigation efforts to space employees while increment the cleaning and sanitation procedures frequency.
• Manage employees breaks in order to have as fewer as possible.
• Implement teleworking for all possible positions, including meeting and conferences.

C.     Referred to workplace and businesses premises

• Design and implement a detailed, comprehensive and documented plan for cleaning and disinfecting the entire facility prior to resume dine-in services and throughout operation under these circumstances. Such plan should continue regularly focusing on: i.- high contact areas that would be touch by employees and customers; ii.- table condiments; iii.- digital ordering; iv.-. check presenters; v.- self-service areas; vi.- tabletops and commonly touch areas. vii.- reusable menus; vii.- restrooms including the need of restock supply of soap and paper towels at all times; ix.- back of the house surfaces, avoiding all food contact surfaces when using disinfectants
• Update floor plans for common dining areas, redesigning seating arrangements to ensure at least 6 feet of separations.
• When available is recommended the use of physical barriers on booth seating and whereas practicable, physical barriers should be placed at registers.
• Limit party size to no more than 6 people when dining-in.
• Where practical, consider reservation-only business model or call-ahead seating.
• Usage of technologies to reduced person-to-person interaction: mobile ordering, mobile access to menu to plan in advance, text on arrival for seating and contactless payment options.
• Provide hand sanitizer for used by patrons.
• Increase physical space between workers and patrons as well as limit contact between wait staff and customers.
• A process should be design to ensure patron separation during their dinning-in experience: i.-while waiting to be seated, including floor markings, outdoor distancing or waiting in cars; ii.-not allowing patrons to congregate in waiting areas or bar areas; iii.- whenever possible having and exit different from the entrance to the facility; iv.- marking paths to ingress/egress to and from restrooms;
• Prioritized the used of take-out, curbside pick-up services over dine-in services.
• Close playgrounds.
• Use of rolled silverware and eliminate table presents.
• Discard single-use items;
• Placing a sign on entrances that no one with fever nor symptoms of Covid-19 are permitted in the facility.

D.     Referred to food safety and food handling

• Discard all food items that are out of date
• Discontinued use of salad bars and buffets
• Remove items from self-service drink, condiments, utensils and tableware stations by having workers providing such items directly to patrons whenever practicable.
• In grab-n-go services stock coolers to no more than minimum levels.
• Discussed with third-party delivery drivers and suppliers about your internal distancing requirements.

As a law, all referred provisions will be enforce, and its violations could be considered misdemeanors if found guilty. We believe as novel and exceptional regulations as the Covid-19 situation will required, as stated by the same provisions rules, that Official enforcing the law will go through an educational period for both them and to those businesses who decide to open to customers start doing the required accommodations to their facilities in order to comply with the law.

It is also expected, due to some evident clarifications from the rules are needed at least referring to the foodservice industry, that Georgia Governor will issue new rules or recommendation targeting this industry. 

Those clarifications rules or guidelines, although should be published as other Executive Order, could be, according to the same provisions under section XI.- Miscellaneous, made public through communication media, including social media, without need of further Executive Orders. 

If you want to see the full text of the Executive order, see the link

We would like to hear from you and how are you dealing to apply these new regulations if you are planning to start your business operations.

Keep safe.