JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) – Leo Carney is concerned that larger crowds and mask-free diners could endanger the employees of the Biloxi, Mississippi seafood restaurant, where he manages the kitchen. Maribel Cornejo, who makes $ 9.85 an hour as a McDonald’s chef in Houston, can’t afford to get sick and frets co-workers will get more lax about wearing masks, even though the fast food company requires them.
As more jurisdictions join Texas, Mississippi and other states in lifting mask mandates and by easing restrictions on businesses, many essential workers – including bartenders, restaurant servers, and store workers – are relieved by changes that could help the economy, but are also concerned that they could make them less safe amid a pandemic that health experts say is far from over.
Many business owners on the Mississippi Gulf Coast were happy that Governor Tate Reeves decided to scrap mask requirements, restaurant seating restrictions, and most other binding restrictions. “But the workers themselves … especially those with pre-existing conditions, they’re scared right now,” Carney said.
“This just puts us back in a situation where we are back on the front lines, under fire again,” said Carney, who sees Black Mississippians at greatest risk from the decision that took effect on Wednesday. COVID-19 has disproportionately affected black and Latino people in the United States, and many Gulf Coast restaurants employ significant numbers of black workers.
Public health experts following the trajectory of more contagious virus variants have warned that lifting restrictions too early could lead to another deadly wave of infections. While vaccination coverage is accelerating as drug manufacturers ramp up production, many key workers are not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in Mississippi and other states.
Alabama state health officer on Friday advised residents to continue to follow standard infection prevention recommendations, even though the governor is letting the state’s mandate expire next month.
“There’s nothing magical about the April 9 date. We don’t want the public to think this is the day we all stop taking precautions,” said Scott Harris, state health officer.
The governors of Iowa, Montana, North Dakota have also ended or plan to suspend mask requirements soon. The South Carolina governor on Friday lifted an executive order mandating face covering in government office buildings and restaurants, leaving it to state administrators and restaurant operators to develop their own guidelines.
Governors in several other states, including Michigan and Louisiana, have relaxed operating limits for bars, restaurants and other businesses in recent days.
The National Retail Federation, the largest retail trade association in the US, released a statement on Wednesday encouraging shoppers to wear masks. Some retail chains, including Target and supermarket operator Albertson’s, plan to continue to require them for both customers and employees in states that no longer mandate them.
Texas Retailers Association president and CEO George Kelemen said he thinks many members of employees – but not necessarily customers – will require them to wear masks and other protective gear.
“Retailers know their customers best,” he said.
McDonald’s cook Cornejo, 43, said the end of Texas’ mask mandate next week alarmed her because several of her colleagues were already lax about covering their faces. She said colleagues she asked to put their masks back on their noses politely agreed, but not always for long.
“There are just different attitudes,” said Cornejo, whose 19-year-old son started working as a cashier at the same restaurant to pay the family’s bills. “Some say it’s just too hard to keep it on for eight hours, especially when it gets hot.”
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, encouraged Americans to “do the right thing” by adhering to recommendations for routine mask use and social aloofness – even as their states lift the restrictions.
Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said people who wear masks are still at risk for infection from unmasked patrons and diners. He called Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s decision to lift COVID-19 restrictions as of March 10 “all too early and worry-free”.
While deaths and new confirmed cases have plunged from their nationwide January peaks, they are still running at a high level, while outbreak indicators have been climbing in some states in recent weeks. In Mississippi, for example, the 7-day moving average of the virus positivity rate increased from 11.47% on Feb. 19 to 12.14% on March 5, and the 7-day moving average of daily deaths in the state is increasing over the same period from 15. per day to 20.71 per day.
Workers in cities who still have masking mandates or jobs at companies that have their own virus prevention rules anticipate backlash from customers who are encouraged by the actions of their drivers and tired of taking precautions.
Molly Brooks, 25, a barista at a coffee shop in Farmers Branch, Texas, said she has regularly dealt with customers walking away or harassing her and her colleagues when asked to wear a mask. Brooks is concerned how they will enforce the rule the coffee shop plans to enforce now that the Texas governor has lifted the statewide mask mandate.
“We’re gearing up for the emotional toll this is going to take,” said the 25-year-old barista, who started working for the coffee shop in November in search of a job in education. “The people who don’t want to carry them will still fight … and now they will have even more ammunition.”
Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, home of the University of Mississippi, requires masks and only allows eight customers at a time. While general manager Lyn Roberts believes the rules will make many customers feel safe, bookstore clerk Paul Fyke said he noticed a change in Oxford almost as soon as the council of aldermen chose to follow the governor’s lead and lifted the university town’s mask mandate. .
“I mean, really, even on the drive home you can kind of see there were places where it was triumphant for a lot of people,” he said Thursday, the day after Oxford’s mask requirement ended. “They were happy to remove them.”
Still, some workers cautiously hope that fewer restrictions will bring more customers, tips, and job security after a year of shortages on all three.
In San Francisco, where the mayor announced the return of indoor dining and the reopening of movie theaters and gyms last week, Dino Keres had no qualms about serving drinks to customers calling at the bar in Sam’s Grill.
That’s partly because he was about to receive his second vaccination dose, but also because none of the staff was infected when eating inside was briefly allowed last fall. In addition, masks are required unless people are eating, and indoor seating is limited to 25% capacity.
“We’ve been through this once, and now the timing feels right to try again,” Keres said on Thursday.
Ro Hart, an assistant general manager and hostess at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco, said the return of indoor dining in the city caused a mixture of joy and dread.
“We are happy to be able to generate more revenue, but we are also a bit nervous because we have to be stricter to make sure everyone keeps their mask on when they are not eating,” said Hart, adding that she would be . much more concerned when San Francisco didn’t need masks.
“We feel with our siblings in all those Texas restaurants,” she said.
Associated Press writers Alexandra Olson and Joseph Pisani in New York; David Koenig in Dallas; Dee-Ann Durbin in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan contributed to this story.