Beaufort City Council approved an extension of the Cityās mask ordinance through November 1st at councilās September 8th meeting. The ordinance was set to expire on September 15th. Beaufort joins the Town of Bluffton, the Town of Hilton Head, and Beaufort County, all of which recently extended their mask ordinances.
The original ordinance was approved on June 28th and went into effect on June 30th.
The ordinance says:
All persons entering any building open to the public in the City must wear a face covering while inside the building.
All restaurants, retail establishments of every description, salons, grocery stores, and pharmacies in the municipal limits of the City shall require their employees to wear a Face Covering at all times that the employees are in any area where the general public is allowed or when the employees must be in close proximity to one another. This requirement also applies to all persons providing or utilizing public or commercial transportation, including tours; and all businesses or employees while interacting with people in outdoor spaces, including, but not limited to, curbside pickup, delivery, and service calls.
Also, during the meeting, Council members agreed that wearing masks has helped to curtail Covid-19 throughout Beaufort County and in the City, and cited a study from the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control showing that jurisdictions with mask ordinances showed a greater decrease in cases compared to those without.
In measures to continue to help its merchants during the pandemic, City Council agreed to:Ā
- Extend temporary outdoor leased spaces for restaurants in downtown Beaufort through Nov. 1.
- Extend free parking at the Marina parking lot on Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 1.
- Extend a waiver allowing 9 a.m. horse carriage tours through Nov. 1.
City Council also supports a downtown First Friday event on Nov. 6, but declined to close streets on that night. Members determined that there was no way to ensure the number attending would be limited to 250 people, as required under an executive order from Gov. Henry McMaster.
