NEW HAVEN MASK RULE TAKES EFFECT
Becomes first municipality in state to set new mandate to wear them indoors
On Monday in New Haven, the city’s reinstated mask mandate was greeted by many residents with acceptance — and by some, with relief.
“I think it’s great. Public health is a serious thing and I think anybody who doesn’t wear a mask is an idiot, frankly,” said Joe Fay, 45, wearing a mask as he exited Bruegger’s Bagels.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker was the first municipal leader in Connecticut to act on the expanded power that Gov. Ned Lamont has granted towns and cities last week to implement their own mask mandates. New Haven’s mask mandate, which began Monday, requires masks in indoor spaces across the city, including bars, restaurants, theaters and offices.
On a bustling block of downtown New Haven on Monday morning, some people
wore masks on the sidewalk and others did not, but most customers quickly put them on as they entered cafes, restaurants and businesses. New Haven County is currently classified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an area of “high” community transmission of COVID-19, the riskiest designation offered by the agency. Hartford County is also an area of “high” community transmission, while the state’s remaining counties are designated areas of “substantial” community transmission.
Fay, a New Haven resident, said he was concerned about the rise of the delta variant and persistent transmission of COVID-19 in the area.
“This thing isn’t over and I have children at home and immunocompromised people at work,” he said. “I think I’m going to be fine — I’m vaccinated — but I also don’t want to carry something to people who are more vulnerable than me, and if that means wearing a mask, that’s very little trouble for me.”
Justina Uwakwe, 45, said she was worried about the number of people who are still becoming infected with COVID-19 and said that mask-wearing is “the best idea,” regardless of vaccination status.
“We’re supposed to use the mask,” she said. “It’s very necessary for everybody.”
In lieu of instituting a statewide mask mandate for indoor spaces, Lamont issued an executive order Thursday evening granting local municipalities the power to require masks in indoor spaces. He has said that his decision affords local areas the freedom to implement their own rules and recognizes widely-varying vaccination rates between municipalities.
“We’ve got towns where less than 50% of the people [are] vaccinated, we’ve got towns where 99% of the people are vaccinated, so I think giving some flexibility there makes a fair amount of sense,” he said last week.
Some residents said they would have preferred to see a statewide mask mandate, but were glad that New Haven had taken the steps it could take to protect against the spread of the virus.
“States aren’t going to do statewide [mandates] because there’s so much pressure not to do it, but it doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do,” said Eddie Chase, 29, on his way down Grove Street. He said he saw New Haven’s decision as a necessary safety measure and was happy to comply with it.
Peter Maniatis, the owner of Zoi’s, a Grove Street deli, said the new masking regulation had not slowed down the normal lunchtime rhythm. Standing at Zoi’s entrance, a steady stream of customers walked in, wearing masks, occasionally offering him a fist bump.
“Even though we weren’t required [to mandate masks] before, a lot of people still wore masks and I think it’s just not knowing who’s vaccinated and who’s unvaccinated,” he said. “Some people, of course, you can’t see who they have at home, maybe they don’t want to bring [COVID-19] back, maybe they want to make sure they don’t contract anything.”
Many customers still prefer to order ahead and have their meal brought out to their car, he said: “It’s become part of the norm now, where they just pull up, find a spot, we bring it out to them.”
Maniatis said he was pleased by how easy New Haven made it for his staff to get vaccinated — the city offered to send mobile vans directly to local businesses, though many of his employees went to the New Haven Green to get a shot, along with a free slice of pizza.
Despite the diminished revenue that came with the pandemic, Maniatis did not lay off any member of his 18-person staff. Throughout
the pandemic, Zoi’s has served first responders who had few places to eat when many other lunch spots were closed — and the deli made regular deliveries to doctors and nurses at Yale New Haven Hospital.
“We didn’t change hours, we didn’t change the menu, we didn’t change employees,” he said. “So when they came in, they saw the people that they were used to and if they wanted to order a sandwich, it was there for them.”
Samantha Yisehak, 18, coming off of a shift at Bruegger’s Bagels, said that she has continued to wear a mask even though she’s vaccinated, because it makes her feel safer.
“I would wear it every day if [the pandemic] could just go away forever,” she said.
Nikole Allen, a lecturer of health policy and management at the Yale School of Public Health and senior program director at the Yale Institute for Global Health, has not stopped wearing her mask since the pandemic began.
“I kept masking because I was protecting my kids and I was aware that I could have been positive, even without symptoms,” she said, as she walked through downtown New Haven with her three young children.
Allen said she was glad to see the mandate return, even though she acknowledged it may prove difficult for those residents who have grown used to not wearing a mask to return to mask-wearing once again.
“It is reassuring,” she said. “I’m really happy that Elicker is willing to do this.”