San Antonio Express-News

» Many essential workers worry about safety, stress as states ease mask rules.

- By Leah Willingham, Michael Liedtke and Anne D’innocenzio

JACKSON, Mississipp­i — Leo Carney worries that bigger crowds and maskless diners could endanger workers at the Biloxi, Miss., seafood restaurant where he manages the kitchen. 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 Texas, Mississipp­i 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.

Mask mandates

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 pre-existing 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. COVID-19 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 COVID-19 vaccines in Mississipp­i and other states.

Alabama’s state health officer on Friday advised residents to keep following standard infectionp­revention 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 Michigan and Louisiana, 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 Albertson’s, plan to continue requiring them for both customers and workers in states that no longer make them mandatory.

‘Different attitudes’

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.

Mcdonald’s cook Cornejo, 43, said the end of Texas’ mask mandate next week alarms her because several of her co-workers already were lax about keeping their faces covered. She said co-workers she has asked to pull their masks back over their noses politely acquiesced, but not always for long.

“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. “Some say it’s just too 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 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 March 10 “entirely too soon and entirely too carefree.”

Workers in cities that still have mask mandates or jobs at businesses that maintain their own viruspreve­ntion rules anticipate defiance from customers emboldened by their governors’ actions and weary of taking precaution­s.

Molly Brooks, 25, a barista at a Farmers Branch, Texas, coffee shop, said she has regularly dealt with customers who walked out or bullied her and her colleagues when they were asked to wear a mask. Brooks worries how they’re going to enforce the rule , which the coffee shop plans to keep in place, now that Texas’ governor lifted the statewide mask mandate.

“We are gearing up for the emotional toll that this is going to take,” said the 25-year-old barista, who started working for the coffee shop in November while looking for a job in education. “The people who don’t want to wear them are still going to fight … and now they are going to have even more ammunition.”

 ?? Rory Doyle / New York Times ?? Customers dine at a restaurant in Southaven, Miss., Saturday. States, including Mississipp­i and Texas, are lifting restrictio­ns, despite warnings from health officials that COVID-19 cases could increase.
Rory Doyle / New York Times Customers dine at a restaurant in Southaven, Miss., Saturday. States, including Mississipp­i and Texas, are lifting restrictio­ns, despite warnings from health officials that COVID-19 cases could increase.
 ?? Mike Liedtke / Associated Press ?? Bartender Dino Keres prepares drinks at Sam’s Grill in San Francisco on Thursday. Governors in some states are easing the operating limits for bars.
Mike Liedtke / Associated Press Bartender Dino Keres prepares drinks at Sam’s Grill in San Francisco on Thursday. Governors in some states are easing the operating limits for bars.

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