Virginians ordered to wear masks inside public buildings
but there are exceptions.
WTVR CBS 6–
RICHMOND, Va. — Everyone in Virginia will need to wear a face cover, or mask, when inside a public building starting on Friday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced Tuesday.
“I am taking this step because science increasingly shows us that the virus spreads less easily when everyone is wearing face coverings,” Governor Northam said.
Face coverings must be worn by anyone 10 years old and older in the following spaces:
1. Personal care and personal grooming businesses, including but not limited to, beauty salons, barbershops, spas, massage centers, tanning salons, tattoo shops, and any other location where personal care or personal grooming services are provided.
2. All brick and mortar retail businesses, including both essential and non-essential brick and mortar retail businesses.
3. Food and beverage establishments, including but not limited to, restaurants, dining establishments, food courts, breweries, microbreweries, distilleries, wineries, tasting rooms, and farmers markets, when permitted to reopen for indoor dining.
4. Entertainment or recreation businesses, including but not limited to, racetracks, historic horse racing facilities, theaters, performing arts centers, concert venues, museums, and other indoor entertainment centers, bowling alleys, skating rinks, arcades, amusement parks, trampoline parks, fairs, arts and craft facilities, aquariums, zoos, escape rooms, public and private social clubs, and all other places of indoor public amusement, once permitted to reopen to the public. Face coverings shall also be required when patrons are outdoors at these businesses if a distance of six feet from every other person cannot be maintained.
5. Train stations, bus stations, and intrastate public transportation, including buses, rideshares, trains, taxis, and cars for hire, as well as any waiting or congregating areas associated with boarding public transportation. This requirement shall not apply in any area under federal jurisdiction or control.
6. Any other indoor place shared by groups of people who are in close proximity to each other. This restriction does not apply to persons while inside their residence or the personal residence of another. Face coverings may be removed to participate in a religious ritual.
7. State or local government buildings when accessed for the purpose of securing public services, with the exception of students in daycare centers or participating in-person classes in K-12 education or institutions of higher education.
There are exceptions to the face-cover rule:
1. While eating or drinking;
2. Individuals exercising or using exercise equipment;
3. Any person who has trouble breathing, or is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove the face covering without assistance;
4. Any person seeking to communicate with the hearing impaired and for which the mouth needs to be visible;
5. When temporary removal of the face covering is necessary to secure government or medical services; and
6. Persons with health conditions that prohibit wearing a face covering. Nothing in this Order shall require the use of a face covering by any person for whom doing so would be contrary to his or her health or safety because of a medical condition.
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Virginians Ordered to Wear Masks was originally published on ipowerrichmond.com
