Coronavirus: Springfield to consider resolution regarding face coverings

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield City Commission will consider an emergency resolution regarding face coverings and social distancing to reduce and prevent the transmission of COVID-19, according to a late added item to Tuesday’s agenda.

The meeting will be held at 2 p.m. via ZOOM and will also be carried on YouTube.com/GATVSpringfield5

According to the resolution, face coverings and social distancing are an “important act of safety and empathy that those in the City of Springfield, Ohio can do in an effort to protect others from infection that may be unknowingly carried and transmitted.”

The resolution reads that additional measures are deemed necessary, above and beyond those instituted by the federal and state government. The city says this is due to “a local surge of the spread of COVID-19 within our community that threatens to strain our local and regional healthcare systems.”

Under the resolution, if passed, the city commission will support the following safety measures:

• When any person, whether an employee, a customer, or a visitor who enters a public establishment located in the City of Springfield, Ohio that invites the public into their premises for the purpose of receiving services, purchasing products, or otherwise conducting business, wear a face covering over their nose and mouth and while inside the establishment and while in the presence of others.
• When any person, whether an employee, a customer, or a visitor who enters a public establishment located in the City of Springfield, Ohio that invites the public into their premises for the purpose of receiving services, purchasing products, or otherwise conducting business, maintain at a minimum at least six (6) feet of physical distance from other non-group members.
• All exemptions to facial coverings shall apply to those expressly exempted under the CDC’s guidelines and/or the Ohio Department of Health’s. However, this exemption applies only to facial covering and does not affect the need to physically distance.

A resolution is not a law, but is a formal expression of opinion or intention, according to the Ohio Auditor’s website.

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