Dallas County companies have three days to implement new masking and safety guidelines or risk fines after Judge Clay Jenkins signed an emergency warrant on Wednesday.
The order comes into effect on Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. According to this, companies must develop and implement health and safety guidelines. Any violation could result in a fine of up to $ 1,000.
On Wednesday, some customers in Dallas’ Bishop Arts District wore masks and some did not.
Cody Ellison owns four neighborhood stores which stores closed during stay at home orders last year.
“I will do whatever it takes to keep people and my employees safe,” said Ellison. “I just hope that it doesn’t make the public nervous again and that they stay at home.”
Ellison said he also supports vaccination to stop COVID-19.
“I think if more people vaccinated, fewer people would get them and we wouldn’t need the masks,” he said.
At Sixty Vines restaurant on Crescent in Uptown Dallas, owner Jeff Carcara said staff were asked to wear masks again last week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended it.
“I would like to think that the people who want to get out would feel safer and more comfortable. And I can’t believe anyone would feel uncomfortable, ”he said. “It’s one of those things that I think was a no-brainer.”
Jenkins said Wednesday the new order was not an attack on an elected official.
“We are all a public health team and the enemy is the virus,” he said.
The order comes a day after a district court judge ruled in favor of Jenkins’ motion for an injunction against Governor Greg Abbott’s order to ban masked mandates.
The verdict is part of a lawsuit brought by Dallas District Commissioner JJ Koch, who escorted Jenkins from a district meeting last week for refusing to wear a mask. Koch claimed the Republican governor’s order was superior, but the district court judge disagreed Tuesday.
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price agreed with Kochs last year in a vote on extending the Safer at Home regulation that closed stores and kept people at home.
Price said he supported Jenkins’ mask mandate.
“I believe masks are becoming an obstacle to closing and so we need to implement all possible tools to avoid closing and shutting down,” he said.
Price also sponsors vaccination to combat the rise in the COVID-19 delta variant and sponsors a three-day vaccination clinic Friday through Sunday at Mt. Rosenkirche.
The church is located at zip code 75249, where approximately 40% of residents have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 29% of all residents are fully vaccinated, according to Dallas County Health and Human Services.
“Unfortunately, they are misinformed and some of us are getting in touch,” Price said. “Vaccines have been shown to work in this country too, so what’s the argument?”
While companies that fail to establish and implement health and safety guidelines for employees and customers can face fines, those who violate the order will not face civil or criminal penalties.
Dale Petroskey, president and CEO of the Dallas Regional Chamber, said in a statement that the fastest way to end the pandemic is with vaccination, which is at the heart of the chamber’s DFW campaign for Take Care of Business.
“We encourage business and community leaders to take precautions to slow the spread of the virus and ensure employees return to safe workplaces and that students and school staff return to safe schools,” Petroskey said. “The sooner we stop the spread of the Delta variant, the sooner we can end the COVID-19 pandemic and return to maximum productivity and a better quality of life for everyone living in North Texas.”
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