With the return of students, health officials push COVID-19 precautions for local businesses, residents

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

With the spring semester in full swing, local Columbia businesses including The Heidelberg have seen an increase in sales.

Richard Walls, owner of The Heidelberg restaurant in downtown Columbia said business has been "really good" since students have come back to town.

"We've definitely seen an increase in traffic, it's been great seeing everyone come back in safely," Walls said.

Some restrictions local restaurants have to abide by are no more than 10 people to a table, six feet social distancing between each table or a barrier and mandatory mask wearing for customers unless they are sitting at a table.

Walls said they've been taking proper precautions with making extra masks available to people who don't have them as well as having employees make sure everyone knows the current health guidelines.

"We've been really strict with our staff about not coming to work if you even think you have COVID or have been around anyone who's had COVID," Walls said.

He also stated that most people coming into The Heidelberg have been aware of the rules and know that this is now how businesses have to run to keep people safe.

Currently, Boone County has a mask mandate requiring masks to be worn at businesses and restaurants. Most businesses downtown have been following these regulations and according to the Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services Department citing only "five to ten suspended operating licenses since the start of the pandemic."

Maya Morris, freshman at Mizzou said, "pretty much everywhere I've been (around town) the mask rule has been enforced pretty heavily. It's really important to have social distancing and stay six feet apart."

Some crowds and lines were seen downtown this past weekend but Scott Clardy, Assistant Director of the Boone County/Columbia Public Health department stated bars/restaurants are only responsible for what is going on inside their businesses and not on the surrounding sidewalks.

This past weekend Clardy said they heard of some large crowds outside one particular business.

"So what we did was we got ahold of police and asked if they could tell the crowd to space out and put masks on," Clardy said.

He also added that it's not the business's responsibility to keep everyone safe, but also extremely important for residents to take important measures too.

"Every single person has their individual responsibility, they need to be wearing a mask and wearing it properly. They need to be staying socially distant and if they're sick they need to stay home," Clardy said. "A lot of businesses will tell us they tried to do the right thing but they cannot control everyone at the same time so there's some personal responsibility that people need to take."

Anyone who notices a business violating county rules can contact the Columbia call center by calling (573) 874-2489 or emailing them through their website.

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