The owner of a popular South Carolina restaurant group with locations in the Greenville, Columbia, Charleston areas has announced a mandatory mask requirement for customers as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens across the state.
Starting Friday, Hall Management Group “will require all guests to wear face masks at the company’s eight restaurant venues, upon entry and exit to and from each venue,” a press release said.
“Our employees have been wearing masks since we reopened May 13,” Bill Hall, Founder and Owner of Hall Management Group, said in the press release. “But we are watching the infection rates continue to increase in South Carolina and we must do all we can to keep everyone safe. As a restaurant family, we are committed to the health and wellness of our employees and guests.”
Hall Management Group employs nearly 900 people at its locations across South Carolina including:
- Halls Chophouse Charleston
- Halls Chophouse Columbia
- Halls Chophouse Greenville
- Halls Chophouse Nexton
- Slightly North of Broad, Charleston
- High Cotton, Charleston
- Rita’s Seaside Grille, Folly Beach
- Halls Signature Events, Charleston
The restaurant’s employees will continue to wear protective gear, as they did before.
At most of the locations, guests will only be able to dine outside with reservations, the release said. The restaurant group will continue to serve customers with to-go orders. They also amped up its sanitation efforts with electro-static cleaning.
“Our promise to practice healthy hospitality remains constant,” Hall said in the release. “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know we have a tremendous team who has been enduring a great degree of change as we’ve tried to operate in this unpredictable COVID-19 environment. Working together we can help limit the spread of COVID-19.”
The decision comes as South Carolina’s COVID-19 cases are increasing at rates that outpace most other states in the country.
In fact, South Carolina reported more positive COVID-19 cases in the last 6 days (6353) than it did in the entire month of May (5888).
For the tenth consecutive day, South Carolina officials reported record-breaking COVID-19 hospitalizations on Thursday.
On Thursday, 881 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized across South Carolina, according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC). This is the highest number reported since the state began tracking the metric in early May.
Thursday’s reported coronavirus hospitalizations are up 23 percent from the previous 7-day average and up 40 percent from the last 14-day average.
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