WORCESTER, Mass. - The city of Worcester's mask mandate remains in effect and city employees are actively visiting businesses to make sure the mandate is being enforced. 

As of Jan. 14, 103 fines and 128 verbal warnings have been issued to businesses not in compliance with enforcing the city's mask mandate.  More than 400 businesses have received educational materials during proactive inspections made by the city's interdepartmental enforcement team, which includes members of the Department of Inspectional Services and the Worcester Police Department.

Inspectional Services commissioner Christopher Spencer says the enforcement team is out every day, including some nights and weekends. The team stepped up enforcement in late November when confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Worcester started rising.

In early January, following a number of complaints from residents, the enforcement visited businesses that may have ignored the mandate or simply weren't enforcing it.

"It's always important to try to talk to the managers at the business and get them to understand why it's important," Spencer said in an interview on Tuesday. "Obviously, (residents) can reach out to us. We're doing most of this proactive, but we're also doing this complaint driven."

Spencer says fines can run up to $100 for a business found not in compliance of the mandate. 

"We have three levels that we're looking at,” Spencer said. “The first thing is making sure that all the businesses are posting the requirement for a mask on the door when you're coming in. So we've supplied them with flyers so they can do that."

“The other one is for the employees themselves to be wearing masks. And the third one is really to make sure customers are wearing masks,” Spencer added. “So each one of those could potentially be a $100 fine."

Spencer said overall businesses have been pretty cooperative with the mandate and its enforcement and there haven't been too many businesses with repeated violations.

"We appreciate all the cooperation of the businesses. We know this is hard. We know these are hard times," Spencer said. "We certainly recognize all the hardships these businesses have endured." 

The mandate went into effect on Sep. 20, 2021 for all indoor public and private spaces and businesses, including retail stores, restaurants, bars, fitness centers, theaters, museums and more.