KING COUNTY, Wash. — King County is currently in phase 2 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s Safe Start reopening plan, but county officials say they have observed a trend of COVID-19 cases increasing as restaurants and bars reopen.
To help keep those businesses operating, Public Health — Seattle & King County launched a new initiative to educate and ensure restaurants and bars are complying with safety requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The program is called Safe Start for Taverns and Restaurants and will conduct visits at restaurants, bars and taverns throughout King County.
“Leading with education, Environmental Health Investigators will assist food establishment owners to understand Safe Start requirements during Phase 2 operations as well as identify and enforce where corrective actions may be necessary,” health officials said. “SSTAR will work closely with restaurants and taverns to ensure they have accurate and timely information and be responsive to their questions.”
The county said there are nine measures the program is assessing.
1. Employee health screening
2. Employee face covering usage
3. Employee social distancing practices
4. Proper sanitation procedures
5. Collection of customer contact information
6. Compliance with seating capacity
7. Prohibiting seating at bar service counters
8. Customer face covering usage
9. Customer social distancing practices.
So far the program has completed 423 inspections of taverns, bars, grocery stores, coffee shops and restaurants.
“While few food businesses failed to establish a Safe Start plan to prevent the spread of COVID-19, most of the them had fully or partially implemented preventive measures. We conducted return visits to those food businesses that had initially not implemented COVID-19 prevention plans following the Safe Start requirements,” health officials said. “We are happy to report that all of them had made significant effort to implement these measures.”
Cox Media Group
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