Fresno City Hall image via wikipedia user Nightryder84

Mayor Lee Brand, in his first press availability over Zoom video conference Friday, announced that the City of Fresno’s emergency order for individuals to “shelter-in-place” has been extended through May 6 to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Signed by City Manager Wilma Quan Friday morning, the emergency order, 2020-13, will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. on April 11.

The additional changes include upgrading the shelter-in-place order to a directive and prohiting all gatherings of any number of people taking place outside of household or living units.

The new emergency order will direct essential businesses to set in place specific social distancing protocols and require employees to wear protective facial coverings.

City parks will be closed to everyone this Easter weekend, and the emergency order extension allows the city manager to close any park that cannot operate within safe social distancing practices.

“May 6 is one week after the expected peak, and the right time to look at what changes we may need to make to our shelter-in-place order and start the slow recovery process,” Brand said. “By all indications that I’ve seen, the people of Fresno are doing an excellent job of sheltering in place and social distancing, but we must continue these practices if we are to protect every man, woman and child in our city.”

Businesses will have to set up protocols including limiting the number of people allowed into a building at one time, markers to maintain a six-foot distance between individuals in lines inside and outside of the business, providing hand sanitizer or soap for customers and employees and setting up contactless payment systems.

With businesses that have stations with interaction between customers and employees, cashier will be required to wear facial coverings.

The City of Clovis passed a similar emergency “shelter in place” order that, if violated, comes with fines of up to $1,000.

The mayor expects Fresno residents to voluntarily comply with the order, but the most egregious violators would face a civil fine of up to $1,000 dollars.

“Repeat offenders that put the public in danger will face the fine,” Brand said. “We don’t want to fine people — we want people to comply the best way we can. Having fewer contacts with people, exercising social distancing and all the standard protocols will protect the entire city of Fresno.”