Have you seen COVID-19 violations in MS Coast restaurants? Here’s how to report it.
If you walk into a Mississippi restaurant and notice that employees are not complying with COVID-19 guidelines set by Gov. Tate Reeves, the state department of health wants to hear about it from you.
Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state’s top health officer, made a plea on Tuesday for Mississippians to report violations they see in their communities.
The best way to submit a violation is fill out a complaint form on the health department’s website or send an email to food@msdh.ms.gov to notify officials of problems.
If the state health department finds the complaint worth checking on, the restaurant will get a call from the health department.
“We’ll contact the restaurant to make sure they understand what the requirements are,” Dobbs said. “We’ll also pay a visit to make sure they are able to comply with executive orders.”
Dobbs said that the health department won’t hesitate to close restaurants if they refuse to meet guidelines.
“As a regulatory agency, a lot of what we do is this sort of thing,” Dobbs said. “The first three stages are going to be education and compliance plans and getting things back on track. We’ve been visiting multiple restaurants so far.
“Once we meet with folks and make sure they understand we’re going to pay attention to this, we’ve had pretty good compliance so far. But if it’s a safety issue and a restaurant is absolutely unwilling to comply with the necessary safety standards, yes, we’ll close them down. We close down restaurants for other hygienic issues — Hepatitis A outbreaks and Salmonella outbreaks. It’s just a different infection. We do believe with some positive reinforcement we can get pretty close to universal compliance.”
Guidelines for restaurants
▪ Bars may sell alcohol only to seated customers. Alcohol can be sold only between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.
▪ All restaurants and bars shall limit the number of customers to no greater than 50 percent capacity.
▪ All groups must be separated by a minimum of 6 feet.
▪ All employees shall be screened for COVID-19 symptoms daily.
▪ All employees shall wear a face covering when serving the public.
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 4:20 PM.
