Starting today, everyone in Jefferson Parish must wear a mask when going inside a business. This includes workers, staff and customers.
Yesterday, Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng announced it would be mandatory to wear masks after a recent spike in coronavirus cases in the parish. The punishment for not wearing a mask could be a $500 and/or up to six months in jail.
But, how is this new mandate going to impact businesses and the public in Jefferson Parish?
“I think if you look at the data and the research the masks help. It’s considerate, it’s a common sense measure,” said President of the Jefferson Parish Chamber of Commerce, Todd Murphy. “The other side of it though, is that there are a lot of questions that surround it. For example, where does the liability and responsibility lie? Is it with the business to enforce this rule or does some of that honest lie with the individual?”
The cost of the mask is also a problem Murphy says. Some businesses, such as restaurants in the parish, have masks to offer customers who walk in not wearing their own mask.
“And they have people show up for dinner, and they don’t have a mask, so the owner of the business provides a mask so you can get them to the table,” said Murphy. “Well if you got four people that come in to eat that is an additional 8-10 dollars you just spent to get them to the table.”
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Murphy adds the parish and the chamber of commerce are working on acquiring and distributing more masks to everyone in the parish to try to mitigate some of those problems businesses are facing.
Murphy says he supports, in theory, the mandatory mask rule, but takes issue with the liability and cost of forcing everyone to wear a mask.
“And there is the confrontation (issue), if there is an employee at a business who says you can’t come in without a mask and then the person says no I’m coming in anyway, well then what happens,” Murphy said. “Then potentially you got an employee in a confrontation with someone who want to come in, and then who do you report that to?”
He adds, “This has been going on for three, four months now. We are just trying to help our businesses back up and running and to get people off the internet and spend locally.”
