Durham businesses to tell customers to wear masks as coronavirus cases climb
As the number of local coronavirus cases continues to grow, the city of Durham and Durham County will require businesses to post signs telling their customers to wear masks.
The city and county have also amended their Safer-At-Home order. Gatherings, which were limited to 10 people, will now be limited to 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors, to align with Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order.
The local order states that signs requiring masks inside businesses to be clearly legible from at least 15 feet away.
The county plans to add examples of signs in English and Spanish on its website to print and post. It also will print 1,000 signs to distribute to businesses and provide disposable masks, as well as guidance on how to approach customers about wearing face coverings, said Wendy Jacobs, chair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners, in a news release.
In tandem with the signs, the city is launching a “Back on the Bull” campaign developed by marketing agency McKinney and Duke’s Center for Advanced Hindsight.
The campaign will use bus advertisements, fliers, billboards and radio broadcasts, in English and Spanish, to normalize social distancing.
Reaching Durham’s Latino community is the campaign’s most immediate goal, said Susan Amey, CEO of Discover Durham, at the Durham Recovery and Renewal Task Force meeting Friday.
Business owners can fill out a checklist online to receive a customized PDF of a campaign poster they can display. The full website will launch July 15.
Durham County had 4,277 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19, as of Friday morning, according to the county’s website. There have been 67 deaths in Durham County.
Since July 1, the county has had 652 new cases, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services’ website.
Grants go to women and minority-owned businesses
Also at Friday’s task force meeting, Mayor Steve Schewel gave an update on local coronavirus relief efforts.
The city, county and Duke University have each agreed to provide $1 million to the Durham Small Business Recovery Fund, which provides grants and loans to small businesses impacted by the pandemic.
Of the $3 million total, the $1 million offered by Duke will fund grants, while the $2 million offered by the city and county will fund loans. The Carolina Small Business Development Fund is administrating the application process for both.
The fund has approved 78 grants totaling $585,000, Schewel said. The average grant was $7,500, he said.
Of the businesses approved, 44 are minority-owned, 48 are women-owned, 37 are low-income owners, and three are veteran-owned, he said.
About $415,000 of the $1 million allocation is left, and a second round of applications is coming. Loans are still in an early processing phase, Schewel said.
The fund denied 54 applications, including some that came from non-Durham residents, Schewel said. The rest can still work with the Carolina Small Business Development Fund to re-apply, he said.
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 9:40 AM.