Temperature screening of employees and face mask requirements highlight some of the enhanced rules Lancaster County will implement as it eases some of its pandemic restrictions Monday.
Many of the rules match those already governing reopened businesses in Omaha and elsewhere in Nebraska.
The new directed health measure runs through June 30.
But when local restaurants resume dine-in service Monday, they must require their cashiers, hostesses and servers to wear face masks, a Lancaster County-specific requirement.
In many ways, the health department requirements made mandatory some of the recommendations of the state.Â
For example, Lancaster County restaurants must disinfect tables and chairs after each customer use, where elsewhere in Nebraska the state only recommends such practice.
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Earlier this month, Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department staff crafted the rules and guidelines and solicited feedback about measures that could allow for the reopening or expansion of certain business services.
On Thursday, Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and interim Health Department Director Pat Lopez said they had reluctantly agreed to ease the restrictions for restaurants, tattoo parlors, hair, beauty and nail salons, barbershops, massage therapists and child care centers beginning Monday.
On Friday, Gaylor Baird urged residents to remain vigilant and continue to take precautions even as the Lincoln area embarks on this phase of the pandemic.
"We should look at this period not as a temporary step, but as our now normal," Gaylor Baird said Friday.
As before, the new directed health measure will keep a limit on public gatherings to no more than 10 people.
Employees at all of the businesses freed by the looser restrictions in the new measure must not have a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher when they report to work, under the order.
Face masks must also be worn by both employees and patrons at salons, massage therapy establishments, barbershops and tattoo parlors.
Beyond requiring people to wear face masks to receive service at those businesses, city officials encouraged everyone to begin wearing them while out in public as a way to keep others safe.
At the mayor's Friday coronavirus response briefing, Bill Johnson, a pulmonologist at Bryan Health, implored people to wear masks, both for their own safety and the safety of other people.
He said the biggest concern is "asymptomatic carriers" — people who are COVID-19 positive but don't know it because they don't have any symptoms.
The risk of disease transmission can be high even for someone wearing a mask if they are exposed to someone with COVID-19 who is not wearing a mask, Johnson said.
If the sick person is the one wearing a mask, the rate of transmission drops considerably, and if both people are wearing masks, the rate is very low. Johnson said some studies have estimated the chance of transmission when both people are wearing masks is less than 2%.
He called everyone who goes out in the community and wears a mask "heroic."
"Everybody has to assume that they are an asymptomatic carrier," Johnson said. "You’ve got to be able to protect the other people in the room.â€
The extent to which Lincoln residents faithfully continue to maintain social distancing, wear face masks, frequently wash their hands, limit their travel and disinfect high-touch surfaces in the coming months will prove lifestyle changes are as important as any directed health measure, Gaylor Baird said.
"The degree to which we adhere to these personal prevention measures will determine the degree to which we help save lives and livelihoods," she said.
Earlier Friday, Bryan Medical Center CEO John Woodrich echoed the mayor's sentiment.
"If (people) follow the guidelines, we think the risk of opening up diminishes," Woodrich said. "But if people just feel that everything's OK and we can go back to normal, then we're going to have an issue on our hands."
See the top stories on coronavirus in Lincoln and Nebraska since the pandemic first affected the area in March.
Reach the writer at 402-473-2657 or rjohnson@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LJSRileyJohnson.
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