Stores can remain open and safe

Brooklyn: While COVID-19 remains a serious risk, the continuous work of health officials has enabled us to gain a better grasp of what we can do to prevent the virus from spreading. This has allowed many local businesses to use that knowledge to operate their stores in a way that protects customer and employee safety. This has proven especially true in retail stores. Now, customers and employees must wear masks, signage lines store floors and walls to illustrate proper distance and plexiglass shields separate customers from retail workers.

The numbers released by the governor’s office show that fewer than 1% of recent COVID-19 cases were attributable to exposure in retail stores, while household gatherings were responsible for a large majority of new cases.

Mounting evidence shows that a new complete retail shutdown is not necessary for preserving public health. The latest research indicates that by implementing capacity limits rather than full shutdowns, for example, cities and states can keep the virus from spreading while protecting against the significant economic toll that earlier shutdowns had on people across New York.

The state has lost nearly 28% of its small businesses, according to a database kept by Harvard University to monitor the economic impact of the pandemic. The retail industry, and hourly workers in particular, took an enormous hit from business shutdowns. The right move would be to allow those businesses that are taking the right precautions to stay open so we can guard against a new wave of unemployment.

Tiffany Joy Murchinson, board member

Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce