Wolf: Most workers, shoppers must wear masks

By staff and wire reports
Going to a Pennsylvania business that remains open during the pandemic? Be prepared to wear a mask. That goes for workers, too.
Many commercial buildings that serve the public will be required to make sure customers wear masks — and deny entry to anyone who refuses — under an order signed Wednesday by the state health secretary.
Employees will also have to wear face coverings, including those who work in warehouses, manufacturing facilities and other places that remain in business but aren’t open to the public.
The mask mandate was included in a wide-ranging order that will govern many aspects of how a business operates — from how it arranges its break room to how many patrons it can allow inside at any one time — as the administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf confronts a pandemic that has killed at least 647 in Pennsylvania and sickened thousands more.
Wolf said the latest order is meant to protect supermarket cashiers, power plant operators and other critical workers who can’t stay home and are at heightened risk of contracting the virus.
“Our essential workers have stepped up to the plate and are keeping us safe, healthy, fed and sheltered during this time, and we all need to thank them (by) doing everything we can to prevent ourselves from spreading the virus to them,” he said at a video news conference.
Wolf is ratcheting up pressure on retailers, warehouses and other establishments to enforce social distancing guidelines and minimize the spread of the new coronavirus just as majority Republicans in the state Legislature seek to ease his administration’s shutdown of businesses it doesn’t consider “life sustaining.”
The order includes what employers should do if the business is exposed to COVID-19. Employers must screen employees for a fever above 100.4 degrees before the start of a shift, and anyone ill must be sent home. There are more requirements on how to handle the situation after the exposure as well.
Other requirements are meant to protect employees by keeping them far enough apart from one another and from customers, they include:
• Stagger work start and stop times for employees when practical to prevent gatherings of large groups entering or leaving the premises at the same time.
• Provide sufficient space for employees to have breaks and meals while maintaining a social distance of 6 feet, including limiting the number of employees in common areas and setting up seating to have employees facing forward and not across from each other.
• Conduct meetings and training virtually. If a meeting must be held in person, limit the meeting to the fewest number of employees possible, not to exceed 10 employees at one time and maintain a social distance of 6 feet.
• Prohibit nonessential visitors from entering the premises of the business.
• Ensure that all employees who do not speak English as their first language are aware of procedures by communicating them in their native or preferred language.

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