SANTA ANA – Santa Ana City Manager Kristine Ridge has signed an executive order requiring essential businesses and employers with four or more employees to make their workers wear face coverings if they come in contact with the public.

The executive order, which was signed April 15 in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, also strongly encourages businesses that provide services or sales of retail goods, food or banking services whose employees come into contact with the public to require customers to wear face coverings.

Furthermore, the order strongly encourages business owners and operators of grocery stores and big box retail stores that sell groceries to the public to establish and publicly announce dedicated shopping hours for seniors citizens aged 60 and older and other populations that are at greater risk of serious illness from COVID-19.

The executive order calls for the use of face coverings as outlined in guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, California Department of Public Health and the Orange County Health Officer. This means that homemade face coverings are acceptable and that essential workers and the public do not need to use medical-grade facemasks.

The order immediately went into effect and will remain so through May 31. Violation of the mandatory face-covering requirement for employees is punishable as an administrative citation, an infraction or a misdemeanor.

This is the third executive order issued by the City Manager since the Santa Ana City Council declared a local emergency on March 17. The previous executive orders halted rent increases and residential and commercial evictions and foreclosures, among other measures.

To see the full executive order and for more information about the City’s actions related to COVID-19, go to www.santa-ana.org/covid19.