NATCHEZ, Miss. –The Board of Aldermen today agreed to let Natchez restaurants reopen for indoor dining if they adhere to strict rules that include limiting the number of patrons inside and requiring waiters to wear facial coverings to help slow the spread of the Coronavirus.
With Natchez restaurants being closed by the city for dine-in services since March 25, they’re starving financially as local and state governments have imposed stringent controls on people getting together in public.
The board also decided to let Natchez hair salons, barber shops and fitness centers reopen if they also take steps to keep their facilities sanitized and less crowded.
What Natchez aldermen implemented today will let these businesses “begin to recover economically and provide services in a safe environment,” said Mayor Darryl Grennell.
The new city order is much like Gov. Tate Reeves’ directives implemented statewide in the past week to let businesses considered “nonessential” to open their doors for customers. Natchez — as other Mississippi cities — is allowed to enact stricter regulations if they don’t impede on essential services or rights.
Natchez remains in a public-health crisis that compels people to stay home, avoid contact with others, wear masks in public, wash hands often and take other steps against the highly contagious respiratory disease. However, with the socioeconomic shutdown of the past two months, there’s a “strong sense of unrest developing among the citizens of our community,” said William Thames, who chairs a committee counseling the Natchez mayor and aldermen during the COVID-19 global pandemic.
While Thames recommended letting Natchez eateries and hair salons reopen their doors, they must follow “very onerous and stringent regulations and guidelines.” Those include having fewer people being inside at one time and being spaced farther apart; wearing face masks covering mouth and nose; deep-cleaning to ensure facilities are sanitized; and testing employees to ensure they’re not sick.
“It is important to note that we are not in a safety zone. We are still in a state of emergency,” Thames said.
At least 15 people from Adams County have died from the novel coronavirus of the 161 people sickened by it here since March 11, according to the Mississippi Department of Health’s count Tuesday. That’s an increase from three weeks ago, when four Adams County residents had died and 70 had the disease.
Of the 15 who’ve died, eight were in nursing homes, eight were black and seven were white, according to the state statistics. Of the total 161 victims hit by the virus from Adams County, 95 are black and 42 white.
The rising number of coronavirus cases in Adams County appears to be stabilizing, said Blane Mire, a Natchez physician advising Grennell and city aldermen. However, he stressed there must be a reduction of cases for two weeks to know if the virus is abating here. “This is only going to happen with a continued mitigation strategy…. to reduce the spread,” Mire told the city officials Tuesday.
People, he said, must exercise social distancing, stay home as much as possible, avoid close contact with others, wash hands often — and wear face masks when interacting with other people inside stores and elsewhere.
“If this isn’t done smartly, … we could turn this into another spike in cases and see an outbreak again,” Mire said.
The six city aldermen’s actions Tuesday revised the various city quarantine orders that were initiated March 24 and gradually eased since then for most businesses to be open with various public-health regulations in place. They’re currently set to expire May 31. This includes an 11 p.m. – 5 a.m. curfew forbidding Natchez-Adams County residents being outside their homes unless for essential duties or services.
Natchez Police Chief Walter Armstrong said most people appear to be complying with the city’s COVET-19 restrictions, but he noted there have been isolated incidents of violators causing “significant problems.” He noted fines up to $1,000 can be imposed on violators found guilty in city court.
Tuesday’s meeting of the mayor and Board of Aldermen was conducted as a teleconference to avoid person-to-person contact. They’ve been meeting like this since March.
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