Pinellas Issues Safer-At-Home Order During Coronavirus Crisis

PINELLAS COUNTY, FL — The Pinellas County Commission has extended its countywide state of emergency and issued a Safer-At-Home order to residents.

Residents are ordered to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and stay home as much as possible except when they must go out for essential needs.

Nonessential businesses are ordered to close storefront operations and customer foot traffic unless they are able to comply with CDC guidelines.

Places of public assembly are ordered to close, including movie theaters, museums, pool halls, bowling alleys, country clubs and other locations where people gather.

County public parks will stay open; however, playgrounds within the parks will be closed.

The spread of coronavirus continues to pose a significant health risk to the community. As a result, on Wednesday the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners extended its local state of emergency declaration another week and adopted a Safer-At-Home order for individuals, business owners and any place of public assembly to slow the spread of the virus.

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The order will continue as long as there is a declared local state of emergency in Pinellas.

"It's important for us to flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections in Pinellas County while balancing the needs of our community, and we are exercising every reasonable power to slow the spread," said Commission chair Pat Gerard. "These actions, with the cooperation of our Pinellas residents and businesses, will help us prevent worse scenarios in the future."

What The Order Means

Pinellas residents are ordered to comply with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for social distancing (6 feet of separation from others and no group gatherings of more than 10)

Stay home as much as possible and limit nonessential activity. Residents can still leave their homes for food, health care, laundry and outdoor recreation. Essential activities include:

a. Direct care or support of family members

b. Health care and medical services

c. Pharmacies, health care supply stores and health care facilities

d. Groceries

e. Meal takeouts from local food establishments (including food banks)

f. Essential work duties that cannot be performed from home

g. Primary or emergency care or direct care of a family member or relative

h. Banks and related financial institutions

i. Laundry services, laundromats

j. Essential home repairs and maintenance (lawn care, plumbing, roofing, etc.)

k. Outdoor activity while following CDC guidelines (examples include: walking a pet, hiking, biking)

l. Veterinarians and pet boarding facilities

m. Gas stations, auto supply and auto repair facilities

Places Of Assembly

Places that facilitate public assembly, whether indoors or outdoors, are ordered to close to the public. This includes places like public playgrounds, publicly accessible children's play centers, bowling alleys, movies and other theaters, country clubs, social clubs and fraternal organizations.

Any gatherings involving groups of 10 or more will be told to disperse.

County public parks will stay open, however, all playgrounds within the park will be closed. For more information about parks, visit the county's website.

Businesses

Nonessential businesses are ordered to close storefront operations and customer foot traffic if they can't meet CDC guidelines. However, businesses may continue internal and minimum basic operations required to maintain the businesses. Businesses are still required to enforce the CDC social distancing guidelines.

Essential businesses may continue operations following the appropriate guidelines to the maximum extent possible. Essential businesses include the following: first responders, police and fire; jails and prisons; hospitals, clinics and other healthcare operations; community-based organizations providing meals and social services; human service operations; garbage and sanitation workers; transportation including airports and public transportation such as PSTA; utilities, public works and essential infrastructure; critical trades such as plumbers, electricians, exterminators, security personnel, etc...; government essential service workers; gas stations; grocery stores, food banks and restaurants for delivery, takeout or curbside delivery; banks and financial institutions; laundromats; funeral services; hotels and lodging; hardware and supply stores; post offices and shipping services.

Businesses that do not comply with the order will be subject to the appropriate enforcement action up to and including orders to close and criminal charges.

Additional information about the Stay at Home order will be posted regularly on Pinellas County's COVID-19 resource page.

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