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Read, Jennifer
Plowden, Mark
Simpson, Cody; Walker, Trey; Toomey, Rick K.; Duwve, Joan M.
[External] Recommendations on Restaurants & Close Contact Businesses
Friday, May 1, 2020 11:05:47 AM

Mark,
As a follow-up, please see our recommendations below:
Restaurant Re-Opening
Our recommendation is to wait to resume in-person dining at South Carolina restaurants
until May 18. This will allow us to see if there is any impact to infection rates in the state from
lifting the mandatory home or work order, partial resumption of retail sales, and resumption
of outdoor dining services.
If the decision is made to resume in-person dining on May 11, we request that the following
protective measures be added:
Maximum of 25% occupancy
Tables must be spaced at least 6 feet apart
All employees must wear masks and gloves
Limit tables to groups of no more than 6
A minimum of 6 feet of distance must be maintained for people waiting to be seated
For buffets, facilities must provide staff to serve the food directly to patrons
Facilities must continue to follow DHEC COVID-19 guidance on cleaning
Note, these protections should be in place even if in-person dining is resumed on May 18
for all indoor and outdoor dining. We will provide a full list of recommended practices as
required.
 
Close Contact Businesses
(e.g., barber shops, hair salons, waxing salons, threading salons, nail salons and spas, body-art
facilities and tattoo services, tanning salons, massage-therapy establishments and massage
services, etc.)
If the decision is made to reopen these facilities, based on current infection rates in South
Carolina, our recommendation is to wait to reopen them until at least 2 weeks after
restaurants resume in-person dining services. This will allow us to monitor any impact the
resumption of in-person dining may have on case counts in the state. In addition, we
anticipate that re-opening these facilities will have a greater impact on minority populations
where we continue to see higher than expected infection rates.

 DHEC will provide recommendations for a phased reopening of these businesses as listed in
the Governor’s Executive Order.
 
 Please let us know if you have any questions.
Jennifer Read
Chief of Staff
S.C. Dept. of Health & Environmental Control
Office: (803) 898-1259
Mobile:
Connect: www.scdhec.gov  Facebook  Twitter