JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) – Leo Carney fears that larger crowds and unmasked customers could endanger workers at Biloxi, Mississippi, the seafood restaurant where he runs the kitchen. Maribel Cornejo, who earns $ 9.85 an hour as a McDonald’s cook in Houston, cannot afford to be ill and worries that his co-workers will become more relaxed about wearing masks, although the company fast food demand this.
As more jurisdictions join Texas, Mississippi and other states in mask-lifting mandates and easing restrictions on businesses, many essential workers – including bartenders, waiters and retailers – are relieved by changes that may help the economy, but also fear that they might make them less secure amid a pandemic that health experts warn is far from over.
Many business owners on the Mississippi Gulf Coast were pleased with Governor Tate Reeves’ decision to eliminate mask requirements, restaurant seating limits and most other mandatory restrictions. “But the workers themselves … especially those who have pre-existing conditions, they are scared now,” said Carney.
“It just puts us back in a situation where we are on the front lines, in sight again,” said Carney, who sees blacks from Mississippi taking the biggest risks with the decision that went into effect on Wednesday. COVID-19 has disproportionately affected blacks and Latinos in the United States, and many restaurants on the Gulf Coast have a significant number of black employees.
Public health experts who track the trajectory of more contagious virus variants have warned that lifting restrictions too soon could lead to another lethal wave of infections. Although vaccination initiatives are accelerating as drug manufacturers increase production, many essential workers are still not eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in Mississippi and other states.
The Alabama state health officer advised residents on Friday to continue to follow standard infection prevention recommendations, although the governor is letting the state’s mask mandate expire. next month.
“There is nothing magical about the April 9 date. We don’t want the public to think that this is the day when we all stop taking precautions, ”said state health officer Scott Harris.
The governors of Iowa, Montana and North Dakota have also ended the requirements for the masks or plan to suspend them soon. The South Carolina governor on Friday suspended an executive order demanding facial coverage in government office buildings and restaurants, leaving state administrators and restaurant operators to develop their own guidelines.
Governors in several other states, including Michigan and Louisiana, have eased operational limits for bars, restaurants and other businesses in recent days.
The National Retail Federation, the largest retail trade association in the United States, issued a statement on Wednesday encouraging consumers to wear masks. Some retail chains, including Target and supermarket operator Albertson’s, plan to continue to require them for customers and workers in states that no longer make them mandatory.
Texas Retailers Association President and CEO George Kelemen said he believes that many members will continue to require workers – but not necessarily customers – to wear masks and other protective equipment.
“Retailers know their customers better,” he said.
McDonald’s Cornejo cook, 43, said the Texas mask’s end of term next week alarms her because several of her co-workers have been negligent in keeping their faces covered. She said that co-workers she asked to pull their masks back over their noses agreed politely, 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 help pay the family’s bills. “Some say it is very difficult 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 continuing to abide by the recommendations for routine mask use and social detachment – even if their states lift restrictions .
Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said that individuals who wear masks are still at risk of infection by customers and unmasked cafeterias. He called Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s decision to lift COVID-19 restrictions as of March 10, “too early and totally unconcerned”.
Although deaths and new confirmed cases have dropped from their January peaks across the country, they are still at high levels, while outbreak indicators in some states have increased in recent weeks. In Mississippi, for example, the 7-day continuous average positive rate of the virus increased from 11.47% on February 19 to 12.14% on March 5, and the 7-day continuous average of daily deaths increased during the same period from 15 a day to 20.71 a day.
Workers in cities that still have mask orders or jobs in companies that maintain their own virus prevention rules anticipate the challenge of customers encouraged by the actions of their leaders and tired of taking precautions.
Molly Brooks, 25, a barista at a Farmers Branch, Texas coffee shop, said she regularly deals with customers who leave home or intimidate her and her colleagues when asked to wear a mask. Brooks worries how they will enforce the rule, which the cafeteria plans to maintain, now that the Texas governor has suspended the mask’s mandate across the state.
“We are preparing for the emotional tribute that it will cost,” said the 25-year-old barista, who started working at the coffee shop in November while looking for a job in education. “People who don’t want to use it will still fight … and now they will have even more ammunition.”
Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, where the University of Mississippi is located, will require masks and allow only eight customers at a time. Although general manager Lyn Roberts believes the rules will make many customers feel safe, bookstore employee Paul Fyke said he saw a change in Oxford almost as soon as the council decided to follow the governor’s leadership and abolished the mask order of University City.
“I mean, really, even on the way home, you can kind of already see that there were places where, for many people, it was a triumph,” he said on Thursday, the day after the mask requirement ended. from Oxford. “They were happy to remove them.”
Still, some workers are cautiously hopeful that less restrictions will bring more customers, tips and job security after a year without all three.
In San Francisco, where the mayor announced last week the return of meals indoors and the reopening of cinemas and gyms, Dino Keres had no qualms about serving drinks to customers who frequented the bar inside Sam’s Grill.
This was partly because he was about to receive his second dose of vaccine, but also because no one on the team was infected when indoor meals were allowed for a brief period last fall. In addition, masks are required, unless people are eating, and indoor seating is limited to 25% capacity.
“We have been through this once and now it seems like the right time to try again,” said Keres on Thursday.
Ro Hart, assistant general manager and receptionist at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco, said the return of indoor meals in the city sparked a mixture of joy and anxiety.
“We are happy to generate more revenue, but we are also a little nervous, because we have to be more rigorous in ensuring that everyone keeps their masks on when they are not eating,” said Hart, adding that she would be much more concerned if San Francisco did not require masks .
“We are very sorry for our brothers and sisters in all restaurants in Texas,” 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.