Venues interested in holding a gathering or event of up to 250 people must have a mechanism for limiting attendance, enforcing social distancing between attendees and complying with this modification’s declarations relating to providing face coverings for employees and signage about the use of face coverings for guests. For any indoor gathering, hosts should calculate usable capacity at thirty (30) square feet per person up to a maximum of 250 individuals.
Buffet-style, family-style, and any other self-service food may reopen if the facility assigns dedicated staff to distribute food, and any customers at the buffet are socially distanced from others who are not of the same household. Self-serve beverage service may also resume in Phase 2.
Gatherings/Events over 250 people: According to the CDC, gatherings of more than two hundred and fifty (250) people offer more opportunities for person-to-person contact and therefore pose greater risk of COVID-19 transmission. Social, community, recreational, and leisure events of more than two hundred and fifty (250) people (“large gatherings and events”), including but not limited to weddings, concerts, parades, festivals, conventions, fundraisers, sporting events and fairs, are hereby prohibited at all locations and venues, except that hosts of large gatherings and events may apply to host a large gathering or event by submitting a plan to covid19faq@delaware.gov at least seven (7) days prior to the anticipated event. Outdoor gatherings and events pose a lower risk of infection and are strongly encouraged.
Ice cream, water ice, custard, or similar shops, and ice cream trucks
Ice cream, water ice, custard, or similar shops, and ice cream shall operate within the same parameters for Food and Drink Establishments as set by this Twenty-Seventh Modification, except that children under 12 old may not order from a window or an ice cream truck unless accompanied by an adult.
Phase 2 Responsibilities of all Businesses
In addition to the industry-specific guidance issued to businesses in the Phase 2 Reopen Plan, including any subsequent amendments thereto, business operations for any business that is re-opening or continuing operations shall follow the coronavirus guidelines for public safety enumerated by the CDC and DPH, including:
- All employees, patrons, and visitors must wear face coverings in accordance with this Twenty-Seventh Modification at all times
- Businesses must monitor patrons and visitors entering a business, in lines, and ensure social distancing throughout a business’ location
- Businesses must ensure social distancing of at least six feet between waiting patrons and visitors in line, both inside and outside. Signage and floor markings must be present to guide patrons and visitors to ensure appropriately spacing while in line
- Businesses must post signs on how to stop the spread of COVID-19, hand hygiene, and how to properly wear a face covering, including:
- Printable signs that will help you comply with the general and industry-specific signage requirements in the Phase 2 guidance are available here.
- Businesses should use doors, windows and other ventilation mechanisms to increase introduction of fresh air and turnover of air within the business’ location.
- All surfaces touched by patrons or visitors, including doors, seating, restrooms, elevators, and point of sale infrastructure must be disinfected using an EPA-approved disinfectant every fifteen (15) minutes to two hours. Businesses should limit cash transactions, and encourage patrons to use credit, debit, or other contactless forms of payment. Cash registers and pin pads must be sanitized after each use.
- Businesses should discourage the use of shared phones, desks, workstations, radios, and wearable technology. If these are unavoidable, a business must ensure that such space or technology is sanitized after each use.
- Businesses must make hand sanitizer or handwashing stations readily available for all employees, patrons, and visitors throughout the business’ location, including at each entry and exit at a minimum. Hand sanitizer must be composed of at least sixty percent (60%) ethanol or seventy percent (70%) isopropanol.
- Hand sanitizer must be used by employees at frequent intervals during any service, appointment, or other scheduled gathering or event, including at a minimum after contact with surfaces touched by others, when incidental contact has been made with a patron or visitor, and prior to preparing or distributing food or drink.
- Businesses must stagger services, appointments, or other scheduled gatherings and events to allow for a thorough cleaning and disinfecting according to CDC guidelines of any public spaces before the next service, appointment, or other scheduled gathering or event begins.
- Follow all State and CDC guidelines and recommendations for social distancing, including that employees maintain six feet of space between themselves and other employees, patrons, and visitors to the greatest extent possible.
- For fixed seating venues, only sixty percent of patron or visitor seating may be occupied and there must be a six foot radius around individual household units. Patrons and visitors must exit their seats in an orderly, row by row fashion, as directed by venue staff.
- Businesses are strongly encouraged to modify any practices that cause close contact (meaning being within six feet for 10 minutes or more or sharing items among patrons or visitors.
- Sharing microphones is prohibited. All microphones, whether they be self-standing in holders, handheld or lapel style must be sanitized after each use.
- Implement flexible and non-punitive sick-leave policies to facilitate compliance with this Modification. Such policies should follow any guidance from the CDC and DPH regarding COVID-19.
- Employers are encouraged to continue teleworking. Employees who have been working from home throughout this crisis should continue working from home unless there is a substantive change to business operations in Phase 2 (e.g., a business was closed, but now it’s open).
- Exclude employees who have been diagnosed with Covid-19, (b) are reasonably suspected to have Covid 19, or have symptoms of Covid-19, such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, aches or muscle pain, chills or repeated shaking with chills. Such employees shall stay home and not come to work until they are until they are free of fever (100.4 °F or greater using an oral thermometer), signs of a fever, and any other symptoms of Covid-19 for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing or other symptom-altering medicines (e.g., cough suppressants). These employees should notify their supervisor and stay home if they are sick. Symptomatic employees must not physically return to work until cleared by a medical professional.
- Prohibit employees who have been told they must be isolated or quarantined from on-premises work until isolation or quarantine status is discontinued by DPH.
- Separate sick employees from other individuals immediately.
- Enforce cough and sneeze hygiene.
- Determination of Maximum Occupancy. With respect to the Phase 2 Reopen Plan, maximum occupancy for a business means sixty percent (60%) of stated fire occupancy requirements, excluding employees, unless expressly stated otherwise.
Businesses and individuals responsible for indoor and outdoor spaces open to the public are encouraged to:
- Provide, at no cost, disposable face coverings for customers and visitors who do not have one.
- Post required face covering signs in languages that are commonly spoken by customers and visitors.
- Educate employees on how to safely work and communicate with people who cannot wear face coverings.
- If any individual, who is not an employee, contractor or volunteer, declines to wear a face covering at a business or indoor or outdoor space open to the public due to a medical condition that inhibits such usage, neither the business nor its staff shall require the individual to produce medical documentation verifying the stated condition. The business or indoor or outdoor space operator may need to work with that individual to seek a reasonable accommodation. If the business or indoor or outdoor space operator is providing medication, medical supplies, food, or other essential product or service, it must, when possible, provide a reasonable accommodation to access services, such as curbside pick-up, delivery, or an appointment by phone or video. A requested accommodation that would endanger any third party or create any likelihood of further infection is per se unreasonable and therefore not required. A reasonable accommodation does not include simply allowing a customer inside without a face covering. Examples of reasonable accommodations include delivery, curbside pickup or visit by appointment.
