Public Health Program Will Enforce Coronavirus Safety Guidelines

SEATTLE, WA — King County has seen a dip in daily coronavirus case counts over the past week, but is still nowhere near where it would need to be in order to move forward to the next phase of the Safe Start plan. On average, King County has reported 140 new coronavirus cases over the past seven days, significantly higher than the county's lowest point in June.

According to Public Health - Seattle & King County, restaurants and taverns have been a driving force behind many of the new infections, and that's got to change if things are going to improve. In order to make sure all of King County's restaurants and taverns are as safe as possible, they've created a new program to better enforce compliance with coronavirus safety guidelines.

The program is called Safe Start for Taverns and Restaurants, or SSTAR. It sends investigators to restaurants, bars and taverns across King County to check and make sure they're following coronavirus guidelines, like requiring mask use, limiting table space and keeping groups seated far apart.

Like many other programs to enforce compliance in Washington, the goal is not to punish businesses for not following the safety guidelines, but to encourage them to do better. In fact, part of the program involves recognizing and supporting businesses that do meet all the safety hallmarks.

That said, they can and will shut down businesses that are operating unsafely.

The SSTAR program checks businesses for 9 key safety measures:

• Employee health screenings
• Employee face covering use
• Employee social distancing practices
• Proper sanitation
• Collecting customer contact information
• Limiting seating capacity
• Prohibiting bar seating
• Customer face covering use
• Customer social distancing practices

When visiting, SSTAR investigators rate the restaurant on each measure if they're fully, partially, or totally out of compliance. If there is a major threat or health hazard, SSTAR can suspend the businesses permit immediately, but in most cases restaurants that are out of compliance with safety guidelines will be given guidance on how to improve, and three days to make the necessary corrections. If they haven't shaped up by the time inspectors return, their permits will be suspended until they do.

Public health says they know that sounds harsh, but it's important to keep everyone safe, especially in situations where alcohol is involved.

"The challenge for taverns and bars is higher, there's a relationship with alcohol consumption and compliance and wanting to wear masks, as you can imagine," said Patty Hayes, Director, of Public Health for Seattle & King County.

However, public health says severe punishment will likely be rare, as long as businesses are willing to do the work to improve. 423 SSTAR visits have already been performed, and the majority of businesses were found to either be totally in compliance with safety guidelines or made major improvements to be in compliance.

"They know what they're doing, but they just need to know they're headed in the right direction," said Hugo Garcia, Economic Program Development Manager, Department of Local Services.

SSTAR will also offer programs to help businesses improve: public health says they can help design floor plans for better physical distancing between tables, give out masks for employees, and more. In addition, they've been conducting a number of outreach programs to help minority-run businesses, who have been disproportionately suffering during the pandemic.

Over the past months cases where businesses have been punished for noncompliance in Washington have been fairly rare. Recently, the Washington Department of Labor and Industries fined 8 gyms a total of $77,000 for not following coronavirus safety guidelines, but in each of those cases L&I says they warned the gyms multiple times over the phone and in person, before deciding to issue a fine for "willfully" disobeying safety rules.