Coronavirus Pennsylvania: Gov. Wolf Now Requiring Customers, Employees At Essential Businesses Wear Face Masks
PHILADELPHIA (CBS/AP) -- Pennsylvania will now require that all customers and employees at essential businesses wear masks. Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday the order will go into effect at 8 p.m. Sunday.
"This order provides critical protections for the workers needed to run and operate these life-sustaining establishments," Wolf said. "Businesses across the state have already begun to implement many of these protocols on their own, and we applaud their efforts to protect employees and customers."
Many commercial buildings that serve the public will be required to make sure customers wear masks — and deny entry to anyone who refuses without a medically valid reason — under an order signed Wednesday by the state health secretary.
Employees will have to wear face coverings, too, including those who work in warehouses, manufacturing facilities and other places that remain in business but aren't open to the public.
Emilio Mignucci is the third-generation co-owner of Di Bruno Bros. His stores are considered essential businesses and he's been taking steps to keep customers and employees safe since the beginning of the outbreak.
"Very early on we had a sanitation station at the front door. We sanitize all of our carts and baskets, we have markers in the store that help people identify distances," Mignucci said.
His employees already have access to disposable masks and just this morning, he ordered reusable ones for his workers.
"They're all going to get two or three to have so they can rotate and cycle through every day and have one available while the other is getting washed. Now it's mandated, I'm glad we're out in front of it and have a solution," Mignucci said.
Besides employees, customers must also wear masks, which do not have to be provided by the business. Those who don't wear one can be forced to leave.
The mask mandate was included in a wide-ranging order that will govern many aspects of how a business operates — from how it arranges its break room to how many patrons it can allow inside at any one time — as Wolf's administration confronts a pandemic that has killed at least 647 in Pennsylvania and sickened thousands more.
Wolf said the latest order is meant to protect supermarket cashiers, power plant operators and other critical workers who can't stay home and are at heightened risk of contracting the new coronavirus.
"Our essential workers have stepped up to the plate and are keeping us safe, healthy, fed and sheltered during this time, and we all need to thank them (by) doing everything we can to prevent ourselves from spreading the virus to them," he said at a video news conference.
This comes as the number of coronavirus cases in Pennsylvania has now topped 26,000, with the death toll climbing above 700. Health officials reported 1,145 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the statewide total to 26,490.
Sixty-three more people died from COVID-19, raising the death toll to 721.
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"COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise in Pennsylvania, and even though the daily increases are not exponential, now is not the time to become complacent," Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said. "We must continue to stay home to protect ourselves, our families, our community. If you must go out, please make as few trips as possible and wear a mask to protect not only yourself but other people as well. We need all Pennsylvanians to continue to heed these efforts to protect our vulnerable Pennsylvanians, our health care workers and frontline responders."
Over 111,000 patients have tested negative for the virus.
Meanwhile, the Wolf administration said it's easing up on tax enforcement during the pandemic.
The Department of Revenue said it will pause payments on existing payment plans on request; offer flexible terms for new payment plans; suspend or reduce automatic enforcement of liens, wage garnishments and use of private collection agencies; and take other steps to offer relief to individual and business taxpayers.
The measures will last through at least July 15, the agency said Wednesday.
The Department of Revenue previously extended the deadline for taxpayers to file their 2019 Pennsylvania personal income tax returns from April 15 to July 15.
CBS3's Greg Argos contributed to this report.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
