Today, Governor DeWine and Lt. Governor Husted clarified during their afternoon press conference that the wearing of masks or other face-coverings by customers is a “strong recommendation” and not a requirement that must be enforced by businesses. Yesterday, the announcement came across as a requirement instead of a best practice/strong recommendation. This is a welcome clarification that the Council worked hard to obtain and we greatly appreciate the prompt response from the Governor and Lt. Governor. It was also mentioned that they will be releasing information on what types of businesses are exempt from requiring employees to wear masks.
The Governor also announced today that he is creating two work groups—one for restaurants and one for barber shops, cosmetologists, salons, etc. The goal is to bring together business owners in these two sectors to come up with best practices for the reopening of their businesses. We were asked by the Governor’s office to provide a recommendation from our membership to serve on the restaurant work group, which we have done.
As always, if you have any questions, please e-mail us at info@ohioretailmerchants.com or call 614-221-7833.