Kanawha County Commission and City of Charleston React to Emergency Legislative Rule Issued for Public Health Standards for Businesses Remaining Open During COVID-19 Outbreak

Today, Emergency Legislative Rule 64CSR114, for Public Health Standards for businesses remain- ing open during the COVID-19 Outbreak was issued by the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health and Human Re- sources. This Legislative Rule affects all 55 counties in the State of West Virginia.

On, April 4th, the Governor declared Kanawha County a “hot spot” and Kanawha-Charleston Health Department Health Director Sherri Young, DO promulgated rules for essential businesses to follow, to help protect the safety of the public and enployees in Kanawha County and made those rules effective on April 5, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. All businesses were notified by local government officials.

The issuance of this Legislative Rule changes the rules promulgated by Dr. Young and goes against her medical advice as she determined the safest environment would be for essential businesses to have only 2 persons per 1,000 square feet in their establishments. The Bureau for Public Health’s Legislative rule will allow those businesses whose sales are com- prised of at least 80 percent grocery food products to have three members of the public per 1,000 square feet.

This was as a result of a push by lobbyist for the WV Retailers Association and OMEGA. Kanawha County and the City of Charleston were also approached by these lobbyist and asked to change the rules promulgated by the Dr. Sherri Young and declined their request for the safety of both the front-line employees of grocery stores and the public.

“Adding 50% more foot traffic inside of stores increases the risks to customers and frontline employees. It goes against everything we are trying to do during this time of asking people to stay home and socially distance. This new rule goes against the medical advice of our Health Director who felt that 2 customers per 1,000 per square feet was a safe number. We must remain diligent in our efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19. These important medical decisions should be made by healthcare professionals and not special interests,” commented Commissioner Ben Salango.

Commissioner Kent Carper stated, “Less than three days ago, The Washington Post reported that more than 40 grocery store workers have died due to COVID-19, we must protect these employees, not add more people to the stores at one time. These front-line heroes deserve more protection, not less. Their voice should have been heard.”

“The Emergency Legislative Rule issued today has great potential to cause a more rampant spread of this virus,” said Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin. “The Health Order put into place by Dr. Sherri Young limits the amount of exposure that the general public and our front-line workers receive.We must continue to focus on the best public health policies that protect our essential employees and the general public.”

The Governor gave detailed directions to 9 counties in his Executive Orders for those counties declared as “hot spots to promulgate their own rules during this pandemic for essential businesses. Kanawha County followed these directions and immediately instituted appropriate rules. The Kanawha County Commission and City of Charleston call upon the Gover- nor to relax the Legislative Rule and allow the 9 counties who have already implemented their rules to maintain their ordi- nances and continue to enforce their regulations. We consulted with the State when promulgating the rules that were de- veloped.