• The more people an individual interacts with at a gathering and the longer that interaction lasts, the higher the potential risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 and COVID-19 spreading.
  
  
• The higher the level of community transmission in the area that the gathering is being held, the higher the risk of COVID-19 spreading during a gathering.
  
  
• Event organizers should continue to assess, based on current conditions, whether to postpone, cancel, or significantly reduce the number of attendees for gatherings.

Please write how you are going to ensure social distancing before, during and after your event or gathering. (e.g., limiting attendance, modifying layouts before and after the event, providing physical barriers during the event, ensuring social distancing at natural gathering points including bathrooms and concession areas and staggering exit and entrance times)

Your plan should include: 

• How you are going to ensure that all staff and attendees are wearing appropriate masks or face coverings based on current guidelines at all times.
• How you are going to ensure that all attendees are socially distanced.
• How many staff/security personnel you will need to ensure all attendees are social distancing and using appropriate face coverings based on current guidelines.

Please write out how you are going to ensure all attendees understand expectations and safety protocols.

Your plan should include:

• How you will communicate changes to the venue layout (e.g., seating entrances and exits) and what signage you will use to supplement these changes.
• What regular announcements and/or signage you will use to reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19 (e.g., social distancing, mask use, and hand washing).
• How you will educate staff and attendees to not come to the event if they become sick with COVID-19 symptoms, test positive for COVID-19, or have been exposed to someone with symptoms or someone suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19.
• How you will communicate with participants should a positive case be identified at your event that requires contact tracing. (e.g., ticketed event attendance, assigned seating, securing contact information, etc.)
• Examples of signage can be found at jacohd.org/coronavirus.

Please write a plan dictating what changes you will make to the facility to ensure that social distancing is maintained

Your plan should include:

• How you will change seating layout or availability of seating, or block off rows or sections so that attendees can stay at least 6 feet apart. Please provide a diagram of seating layout and/or availability. 
• What physical guides, such as tape on floors and signs on walls, will be used to ensure social distancing?
• How you will eliminate lines or queues if possible or encourage people to stay at least 6 feet apart by providing signs or other visual cues such as tape or chalk marks in congregation areas such as entrances, exits, and restrooms.
• How will you limit congregation points and ensure proper separation in parking lots.
• How you will ensure adequate supplies to minimize sharing of materials, or limit use to one per family or group of individuals at a time, and clean and disinfect between use.
• For stadiums with multiple entry points, how you will cohort audience entry and exit points and prohibit interaction during the event.
• How you will ensure advanced cleaning and disinfection of frequently touched surfaces, communal spaces, and shared objects.
• How you will perform health checks, as appropriate, of all staff and attendees.

Event organizers must implement all applicable measures listed above. If a measure is not able to be implemented, organizers must dictate why the particular measure is inapplicable to the event. Gathering Protocol approval for current or future events may be revoked at any time with possible punitive action for failure to comply with Jackson County Health Department orders, Jackson County ordinances, and/or state law. Questions can be directed to Jackson County Environmental Health at 816-847-7070.