ODH issues more warnings to businesses for retail mask compliance order violations

COLUMBUS — An additional 11 businesses were issued warnings by the Ohio Department of Health last week for violations of the state’s retail mask compliance order, according to data released Thursday.

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The state has issued 143 warnings to businesses since November, which represents less than 1 percent of all the businesses visited by the ODH’s Retail Compliance Unit.

A first violation of the mask order results in a warning for a business, according to the ODH order. Repeat violations result in the business being forced to close immediately for up to 24 hours to allow any airborne COVID-19 droplets to dissipate.

No businesses in the state have received a second warning since the enforcement began, according to ODH data.

Additionally no local businesses were included in the compliance unit’s warnings in the last week, according to additional data News Center 7 received from the ODH earlier this week.

The state continues to report high numbers of customers and employees wearing masks properly across the state. Last week, 95 percent of customers and 95.5 percent of employees were observed to be wearing masks by the compliance unit, both of which are above the average since the enforcement began.

The Retail Compliance Unit visited 3,607 businesses last week across 85 of the state’s 88 counties.

Cox Media Group