Reopen safely with best practices for each business

AS A SENIOR with underlying health issues, I am grateful for no-contact curbside pickups at grocery stores and restaurants. Thank you to the establishments that offer this service. Unfortunately, my favorite pizza place prefers I use their drive-up, which a Clovis restaurateur noted in a recent letter, isn’t as safe. Worse, many restaurants do takeout only if you enter their facility, with resulting close contact.

Free choice by businesses and customers is understandable, but why no guidance or development of best practices for this and all the other 22 categories of “essential” businesses? Unfortunately, I suspect some entities choose to do less because of convenience or bottom line. For example, I was told by a fireman his firehouse has no real physical distancing or mask usage — just one big happy family!

In general, the state enforces strict environmental, safety and other health requirements, which often lead to the development of best practices, but at present our businesses have only very general federal guidelines — not business specific — for dealing with this deadly virus. More and more we hear we will be living with this threat for a long time. Let’s stop dealing with it as a passing problem.

All business activities, whether declared essential or not, should have clear and practical best practices developed jointly by government and industries. We have lots of great minds in our commercial and laboratory entities that need to be utilized for developing guidance, rather than the few that help the governor decide what will be closed and what won’t.

With business-specific best practices for dealing with the virus, more of our businesses could open sooner, and those already opening would be safer.

TOM BLEJWAS Sandia Park