The city of Hattiesburg will expand retail sales under Mayor Toby Barker’s executive order beginning 5 p.m. Friday, according each business’ retail space. The executive order will expire at 8 a.m. May 31, unless it is changed by Barker. Non-essential retail will be expanded locally because of Gov. Tate Reeves’ recent executive order, Barker said.
“As we begin taking steps to reopen parts of Hattiesburg’s economy, we do so with a dual focus of prioritizing public health while giving the private sector space to operate creatively,” Barker said. “Now that we are beginning to get back out and have more frequent touch points with one another, it is important that we find ways to reduce the risk of community transmission.”
Barker said all employees and any customer older than six years old must wear masks.
“Wearing masks is a reasonable and responsible path forward,” he said. “COVID-19 will continue to be a threat to our community for the foreseeable future. We must continue to protect vulnerable populations and prevent the overrun of our health care system, all while adjusting to our new normal.”
Non-essential retail stores include electronics stores, clothing stores, tobacco stores, florists, furniture stores, bookstores and jewelry stores. These stores shall implement systems to limit access to a certain number of customers at one time in the store. This limit shall correspond to the square footage in their sales area:
*Sales areas between 0-5,000 square feet – 10 or fewer customers;
*Sales areas between 5,001 and 10,000 square feet – 20 or fewer customers;
*Sales areas between 10,001 square feet and 15,000 square feet – 30 or fewer customers;
*Sales areas between 15,001 square feet and 20,000 square feet – 40 or fewer customers;
The mayor said Hattiesburg plans to take a measured approach to reopening the local retail businesses.
“We’re kind of keeping an eye on the White House’s own criteria,” Barker said. “You may see how that measures out in terms of trying to look for a spike in infection rates over the next two or three weeks before we take the next step. All of those are designed to try and hold down the spread of the community transmission.”
Barker said the city has had two overall goals in the past six weeks.
“Our goals guiding this going forward will be protecting local populations of people over the age of 60,” he said. “There’s a focus on underlying health conditions. Secondly, preventing overrun of the healthcare system deals with slowing the spread of the disease.”