Workers fearful as some states lift mask mandates
Restaurant, retail staffers weigh risks from ongoing threat
JACKSON, Mississippi — Leo Carney worries that bigger crowds and maskless diners could endanger workers at the seafood restaurant where he manages the kitchen in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Maribel Cornejo, who earns $9.85 an hour as a McDonald’s cook in Houston, can’t afford to get sick and frets co-workers will become more lax about wearing masks, even though the fast-food company requires them.
As more jurisdictions join Mississippi, Texas and other states in lifting mask mandates and easing restrictions on businesses, many essential workers — including bartenders, restaurant servers and retail workers — are relieved by changes that might help the economy but also concerned they could make them less safe amid a pandemic that health experts warn is far from over.
Many business owners on the Mississippi Gulf Coast were glad Gov. Tate Reeves decided to eliminate mask requirements, limits on seating in restaurants and most other binding restrictions. “But the workers themselves... especially ones that have preexisting conditions, they’re scared right now,” Carney said.
“This just puts us back in a situation where we’re on the front lines, under the gun again,” said Carney, who sees Black Mississippians facing the greatest risks from the decision that took effect Wednesday. COVID19 has disproportionately affected Black and Latino people in the United States, and many Gulf Coast restaurants have a significant number of Black employees.
Public health experts tracking the trajectory of more contagious virus variants have warned that lifting restrictions too soon could lead to another lethal wave of infections. Although vaccination drives are accelerating as drug manufacturers ramp up production, many essential workers are not yet eligible for COVID19 vaccines in Mississippi and other states.
Alabama’s state health officer Friday advised residents to keep following standard infection-prevention recommendations even though the governor is letting the state’s mask mandate expire next month.
“There is nothing magical about the date of April 9. We don’t want the public to think that’s the day we all stop taking precautions,” State Health Officer Scott Harris said.
The governors of Iowa, Montana, North Dakota also have ended mask requirements or plan to suspend them soon. The governor of South Carolina on Friday lifted an executive order requiring face coverings in government office buildings and restaurants, leaving it up to state administrators and restaurant operators to develop their own guidelines.
Governors in several other states, including Louisiana and Michigan, eased the operating limits for bars, restaurants and other businesses in recent days.
The National Retail Federation, the largest retail trade association in the U.S., issued a statement Wednesday encouraging shoppers to wear masks. Some retail chains, including Target and supermarket operator Albertsons, plan to continue requiring them for both customers and workers in states that no longer make
them mandatory.
Texas Retailers Association President and CEO George Kelemen said he thinks many members will continue to require workers — but not necessarily customers — to wear masks and other protective gear.
“Retailers know their customers best,” he said.
Cornejo, 43, said the end of Texas’ mask mandate this week alarms her because several of her co-workers already were lax about keeping their faces covered.
“There are just different attitudes,” said Cornejo, whose 19-year-old son began working as a cashier at the same restaurant to help pay the family’s bills.
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 recommendations for routine mask use and social distancing — even if their states lift restrictions.
Dr. William Schaffner,
a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said individuals who wear masks still risk infection from unmasked shoppers and diners. He called Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to lift COVID-19 restrictions starting Wednesday “entirely too soon and entirely too carefree.”
The U.S. has had nearly 29 million infections and more than 524,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
JERUSALEM — Israel reopened most of its economy Sunday as it removed many of its remaining coronavirus lockdown restrictions, lifted by its successful vaccination campaign and giving a boost to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection hopes.
The easing of restrictions comes after months of government-imposed shutdowns and less than three weeks before the country’s fourth parliamentary elections in two years. Israel, a world leader in vaccinations per capita, has fully immunized nearly 40% of its population in just over two months.
Bars and restaurants, event halls, sporting events, hotels and all primary and secondary schools that had been closed to the public for months were permitted to reopen Sunday. Some restrictions remained on crowd sizes, and certain places were open to the vaccinated only.
“We’re very happy that this day came. We’ve been preparing for this day for a very long time,” said Assaf
Obsfeld, a Jerusalem coffee shop owner who was checking customers to ensure they had been vaccinated.
Netanyahu’s government approved the easing of limitations Saturday night, including the reopening of the main international airport to a limited number of incoming passengers each day.
Netanyahu is campaigning for reelection as Israel’s coronavirus vaccine champion at the same time that he is on trial for corruption.
Israel has sped ahead with its immunization campaign. Over 52% of its population of 9.3 million has received one dose and almost 40% two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, one of the highest rates per capita in the world.
Nearly 90% of the country’s over-50 population has either been vaccinated or recovered from the coronavirus. With that high-risk population largely inoculated, decision makers have concluded it is safe enough to reopen more parts of the economy.
Netanyahu appears to be banking that some semblance of normalcy will lift his reelection prospects.
Opinion polls show him locked in a race against a field of challenges that is too close to call.
While vaccination rates continue to steadily rise and the number of serious cases of COVID-19 drops, Israel’s unemployment rate remains high. As of January, 18.4% of the workforce was out of work because of the pandemic, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
At the same time that it has deployed vaccines to its own citizens, Israel has provided few vaccines for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a move that has underscored global disparities. It has faced criticism for not sharing significant quantities of its vaccine stockpiles with the Palestinians.
On Friday, Israel postponed plans to vaccinate Palestinians who work inside the country and its West Bank settlements until further notice. Officials said the program would begin Monday.
Israel has confirmed over 800,000 cases of COVID19 since the start of the pandemic and 5,861 deaths, the Health Ministry said.