Mayor Strickland has extended the Safer at Home Executive Order for an additional two weeks through May 5th. In the extension, the City did include some additional conditions, as well as, lift some restrictions.
A quick update on those conditions:
Effective Friday at 6:00 am, all “big-box retailers” of groceries and hardware items, such as Target, Kroger, Walmart, and Walgreens, will be required to implement Covid-19 Compliant Protocols, including:
- Limiting the number of people who can enter the facility at any given time, such that people can easily maintain a 6-foot distance from each other
- Establishing waiting for lines (inside and outside the store) by marking six-foot increments to allow for social distancing
- Providing hand sanitizer at the entrances
- Requiring employees to wear facial coverings when in spaces accessible to the public
- Providing at least one hour of controlled access every day to customers over 55, pregnant, or have serious underlying conditions
Members of the public are strongly encouraged to wear facial coverings when engaging with others or entering a place of business.
Consistent with the Health Department Directives, fully automated car washes will be allowed to operate, but all ancillary amenities, such as the vacuums, must be closed for public use.
Also, consistent with the Health Department Directives and a successful trial this past weekend, golf courses will be allowed to operate beginning this weekend, subject to implementation and compliance with Covid-19 Compliant Protocols specific to golf courses.
At this time, the City is opening five of the eight public courses—Links at Galloway, Links at Audubon, Links at Fox Meadows, Links at Pine Hill, and we opened the Links at Whitehaven this past weekend.
Reopening the Economy
The City of Memphis is in constant communication with the Governor’s office as well as the mayors of the other three large cities across our state and cities within Shelby County. It is important to note Governor Lee’s order on the expiration of Safer at Home and the phased reopening of businesses only affects 89 counties across the state. Shelby County is not one of them.
From Mayor Strickland’s April 22nd address:
Since the beginning, our approach has been one that is based on medical advice and data. Reopening our city and getting our economy moving again is vitally important, but we must to get back to business the right way. We cannot squander all the good we have done with our social distancing efforts to slow the spread of the virus.
As we look to reopen, we will base our decisions largely on three areas:
- The numbers of new cases are stable or decline for a period of time.
- Our hospitalizations are stable or declining for a period of time and our hospitals have the capacity to treat all patients.
- Our testing and tracing capabilities are sufficient to contain the virus.
There will be more to come on this over the next two weeks as our economic recovery group is working on this daily. We will quantify these indicators or conditions and communicate them, so everyone will understand how we get back to business safely.