Milwaukee order lets schools with approved safety plans open at 50% capacity.
Order also extended to bars and restaurants
Milwaukee schools will be allowed to reopen for in-person classes with 50% capacity if they have a safety plan approved by the Health Department under a new COVID-19 order released Friday.
All bars and restaurants will also be required to submit safety plans to the Health Department, converting what had been a voluntary program into a mandate.
The city’s Order 4.1, which was released Friday, also includes updated language requiring face masks, in compliance with a new city ordinance.
The new order went into effect at 5 p.m. Friday.
As of a 3 p.m. update Thursday, Milwaukee had nearly 14,500 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 261 deaths.
The city’s new order also comes as Gov. Tony Evers institutes a statewide mask mandate aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, which has surpassed 50,000 cases and 900 deaths in the state.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said Thursday that the city’s stricter mask order makes sense.
“Obviously, we are much more densely populated than a lot of different parts of the state, then it makes sense to have a different set of rules,” Barrett said.
The order also allows gyms and athletic facilities to operate with the lesser of 50% of the total occupancy, one person per every 30 square feet, or 250 people. Gyms must also be in compliance with the mask requirements.
Criteria for schools available next week
The Health Department’s new order applies to schools, including K-12, trade schools, colleges and universities.
The agency said a checklist based on guidance provided by the state and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be available by the end of next week at milwaukee.gov/mmfs.
Marquette University’s plan was approved this week, the university said in a statement Friday.
Plans by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, The Institute of Beauty and Wellness, and the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study had been approved, the Health Department said earlier this week.
Other schools that had submitted plans were Alverno College, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and Empire Beauty School, according to the Health Department.
Milwaukee Public Schools and a number of smaller public charter and private schools have decided to begin the school year online. But several other charter and private schools are hoping to reopen for at least some in-person instruction.
Charter and private school advocates had complained in mid-July that they were blindsided by a change in a Health Department document that effectively barred them from reopening for in-person instruction until the city reaches Phase 5 of its reopening plan.
The Health Department announced days later that schools could reopen if their plans were approved by the agency. And it has been meeting with school leaders and advocates to create an assessment tool — similar to the one developed for bars and restaurants — that will make it easier for schools to submit their plans and the health department to review them.
Safety plans for bars, restaurants due Sept. 15
The new order requires bars and restaurants to submit their safety plans and continue to work with the Health Department until the plans receive department approval.
The deadline to submit a safety plan and risk assessment tool is 11:59 p.m. Sept. 15.
The order makes what had been a voluntary program into a requirement. There haven’t been any outbreaks in the
businesses that had been in the voluntary program, Claire Evers, deputy commissioner of environmental health, told the Journal Sentinel on Friday.
Once the plan is approved, the bar or restaurant will be expected to abide by restrictions in its approved plan, not the sections of the order relating to those establishments. It will receive a certificate from the city indicating it can operate safely.
Those with plans in place can operate without the current 50% capacity limit, Evers said. With social distancing required as part of safety plans, however, she did not foresee restaurants or bars being at full capacity like before the pandemic.
She said the safety plans will give owners and customers more confidence.
Having the plans in place is also a way to guard against the city having to issue orders closing businesses again if the pandemic worsens, Evers said.
Because the businesses will have to comply with rigorous safety precautions, Evers said, the Health Department feels bars and restaurants will have safer operations even with higher
“I would be more confident dining at an establishment that may have 80% of the people that they normally do with a COVID safety plan in place than some place that had 10 customers and no COVID safety plan.” Claire Evers deputy commissioner of environmental health
capacity than those run at lower capacities without safety plans.
“I would be more confident dining at an establishment that may have 80% of the people that they normally do with a COVID safety plan in place than some place that had 10 customers and no COVID safety plan,” she said. “The number of people is important, but having all those measures in place is even more important.”
The language in the order differs from Milwaukee Health Commissioner Jeanette Kowalik’s explanation earlier in the week that “once that date hits, you’re not going to be able to serve indoors unless you have that approved plan.”
The plan changed between Kowalik’s comment and the order’s issuance, after consultation with the City Attorney’s Office, Evers said.
Establishments that do not submit safety plans will fall into the department’s “enforcement track,” Evers said.
The department will begin by reaching out to those businesses to ensure they understand the requirements and see if there are barriers to them submitting a plan. They’ll then receive a new deadline.
Owners who still do not comply with the order will see their licenses referred to the Common Council’s Licenses Committee, she said.
Evers said the safety requirements are attainable, and the Health Department worked with business owners to get their input before it was released as a voluntary program. She said if there’s a reason that a business owner can’t meet one of the requirements, the department would want to have a conversation about the issue.
The department currently has five people trained and dedicated to reviewing the plans, and more will be available after the Democratic National Convention wraps up on Aug. 20, depending on demand, she said.
Evers said the safety plans will be very similar for establishments that are operated by the same entity, such as a chain or a business with multiple restaurants. That review will be a lot faster.
The department also set up its application system to allow those reviewing the plans to easily find where each requirement is addressed in the paperwork submitted, expediting the process, she said.
Plans will be reviewed in the order they are received, which may take “several days,” the department said in the statement.
Businesses’ compliance with their plans will be checked during routine inspections and the department will also respond to complaints. Many of the measures will be implemented behind the scenes, Evers said, so it will likely be difficult for a member of the public to determine just by looking at an establishment whether it is in compliance.
“I will say that all the operators that I have worked with thus far during this COVID response, they are doing their very best to make sure all their staff are compliant, their guests are being safe,” she said. “They don’t want to get sick, they don’t want their staff to get sick.”
The city will be holding a workshop online on Aug. 6 to help restaurant and bar owners put together their safety plans.