Kelly Hayes
The city of Tampa is continuing to crack down on bars and restaurants for violating county ordinances to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 following an uptick in cases.
The majority of the businesses inspected were following regulations. Of the 179 inspections conducted between Thursday and Saturday, only 12 citations were issued.
On Thursday, the city conducted 65 inspections, and issued four citations. All citations were issued to bars between 10:45 p.m. and midnight.
That pattern carried over to Friday night, where all three citations occurred after 10 p.m. at a bar in South Howard and two bars in Ybor. All three citations listed a failure to wear masks. At Yard of Ale in SoHo, two additional violations included lack of social distancing a crowded dance floor.
Saturday saw the most citations, with five issued from 10:45 p.m. through midnight. The violators included four Ybor City bars on 7th Avenue and one restaurant on North Franklin. The violations included no masks, standing at bars and no social distancing.
The city issued one repeat citation to Ybor Cigars Plus, which includes a $300 fine.
The inspections and ensuing citations come after the Hillsborough County Commission enhanced its mitigation ordinance last Wednesday to mirror that of Pinellas County. It moved to require all individuals to be seated when eating or drinking at a restaurant, as well as prohibiting dance floors and loitering next to bars.
Leaders from Pinellas and Hillsborough counties met virtually last Thursday and made clear that they are cracking down on businesses that do not follow the ordinances. At the start of December, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri came down hard on businesses, especially bars and restaurants, that were non-compliant.
At the meeting, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman announced that the city of St. Pete has so far issued 189 citations in regard to COVID-19 ordinances.
Pinellas and Hillsborough counties have both seen a significant rise in coronavirus cases within the past few weeks. On Wednesday, Hillsborough County surpassed 1,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19, a grim milestone. Pinellas County isn’t far behind with 966 deaths attributed to the virus.
