City Team to Begin Crackdown on San Antonio Restaurants Violating COVID-19 Orders
- Instagram / thewellsanantonio
The City of San Antonio has created a code-enforcement team to crack down on bars and restaurants violating pandemic protocols through random check-ins and by following up on complaint calls, KSAT reports.
Following a troublesome live-streamed video showing overcrowded conditions at nightspot The Well last weekend, Development Services Director Michael Shannon said the new team was created with one purpose in mind: to seek out violators of state and local COVID-19 safety orders.
“Recently, we found one facility that clearly had problems with lack of social distancing, lack of enforcing any type of controls in making sure people were seated at their tables, a lack of enforcing masks for their patrons,” Shannon told the news station.
Shannon added that the team can issue citations and that the city could shut down establishments that don’t comply.
Recent changes by the state allow certain bars to reopen as restaurants with a new certificate. Those businesses are required to follow safety and sanitation guidelines provided by both the city and the state.
After the incident at The Well, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg put restaurants on high alert during a recent media briefing.
“I was angered by what I saw on the tape,” he said, “not just for just the blatant disregard for the wellbeing of other people, including those that were in that establishment, but also on behalf of all the other small business owners in this community that are trying to do it the right way.”
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