The Allegheny County Health Department is deploying a new Covid Field Response Team on Thursday to monitor businesses and ensure they are following public health orders, officials announced during a press conference on Wednesday.
The team members, 10 people who are contracting with the county, will visit businesses like bars and restaurants and evaluate them using a checklist. The list will address safety precautions, including state masking order, occupancy restrictions, and physical distance requirements. At the end of each visit, a copy of the completed checklist will be provided, as well as educational materials.
The business name, the date of the visit and a copy of the checklist will be posted on the county’s website “so that the public can see which businesses are working hard to keep everyone safe,” said the county executive Rich Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald said team members will initially visit bars and restaurants identified through complaints made by residents to the department.
“If a team member finds that a bar or restaurant is not following all covid-19 safety measures, they will alert the health department’s Food Safety Program,” said Fitzgerald, and an inspector will be dispatched to the location. “Which could lead to the closure of the facilities.”
In bars and restaurants, team members will check to see if the tables are far enough apart to physically distance each other; interior capacity is restricted to 25%; staff and clients wear masks; meal services end at 11 pm; and signs remind customers of precautions, among other examples.
“We are not seeking to punish bars and restaurants,” Fitzgerald said. “But we want everyone to follow the rules, and this team will provide them with the materials and resources they need to operate safely.”
Fitzgerald and Allegheny County Health Director Debra Bogen expressed satisfaction at the recent decline in daily cases of coronavirus in Allegheny County after several days of triple-digit reporting. Fitzgerald said the percentage of positive tests was consistently 11% or 12%.
There were only 96 cases reported in the county on Wednesday, and the positivity rate had dropped to less than 6%, Fitzgerald said. However, hospitalizations and deaths from the virus have increased.
“It really is a credit to the people in this community who take those recommendations and mitigation strategies that Dr. Bogen and her team took seriously,” Fitzgerald said.
Bogen said Wednesday that county case investigations have shown that more positive cases have been the result of people who attended private parties such as bridal showers and birthdays. This is unique in most cases from late June to early July, dating back largely to bars and restaurants.
“If all people infected with covid-19 became sick, this virus would be much easier to fight,” said Bogen. “But because many people with the virus don’t have any symptoms, we don’t know who might be spreading the virus and who might not.”
Bogen encouraged people to continue meeting, but practices physical distancing and takes other precautions, such as “resisting” hugs, limiting the amount of food and utensils, and wearing masks.
He said he understands that many suffer from greedy-related “fatigue,” but warned that the county, and the rest of the country, will likely deal with this for at least another year.
Bogen also said the county is preparing for yet another increase in cases in the fall, as more people crowd the interior due to the colder weather and students return to school. She warned that no back-to-school plan will be 100% safe against covid-19 infections, and asked parents to be patient and flexible as the guidelines change.
Teghan Simonton is a writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Teghan at 724-226-4680, [email protected] or via Twitter.
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