10 Sep Covid-19 COA-Information for Businesses and Industries

Information is provided here for City of Austin Businesses and Industries during COVID-19, including definitions and guidance for employers, employees and customers.

Building Occupancy

Under Orders from Texas Governor Greg Abbott, businesses will be allowed to expand their operations based on specific percentages of partial capacity. Building capacity, or occupant load, is based on a number of factors identified on a facility’s Occupant Load card.

For more information about Occupant Load Calculations, visit austintexas.gov/page/occupant-load-calculations.

Enforcement and Compliance

The primary focus of the City of Austin and Travis County is on education, voluntary compliance, and individual personal responsibility to help stop the spread of this disease.

City of Austin Code, Fire, and Police are responding to complaints about businesses in violation of City, County, Medical Authority, and State Orders. 

For up-to-date information on what is currently mandated under rules or orders, please visit the Rules and Orders page.

Retail, Restaurant Dine-In and Reopen Service Logs

To assist in both the statewide and local contact tracing programs, all retail, restaurants and bars allowing indoor service and all reopened services are encouraged to maintain an activity log of, as reasonably possible, the contact information for all inside or sit-down customers and employees including the dates and times they were present in the business and the location they occupied for more than a passing moment. Voluntary maintaining of such a log may obviate the need for the Austin Public Health normal protocol otherwise of to publicly release, without limitation and in its discretion, the location where people with confirmed infections have been, with relevant dates and time frames, so as to otherwise trace contacts. To protect the privacy of customers, the logs shall be maintained only for a one-month period and shall be the property of the business, not the city. The log may be used only by public health authorities if needed for contact tracing. The logs shall not be part of a database and shall not be used for law enforcement purposes.

Direction for Businesses, Industries and Job Types

The table below provides clarification for industries, business types and specific jobs to the extent possible in compliance with the most recent Orders. 

Except as otherwise provided below, all businesses are allowed to operate at 50% capacity. Masking and social distancing requirements must be followed. For more information about requirements, visit the Rules and Orders page.

The City of Austin is not providing individual businesses legal advice on whether their business should remain open or close during this time.