JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) – Leo Carney is worried that larger crowds and unmasked people could endanger workers at the Biloxi, Mississippi seafood restaurant where he runs the kitchen. Maribel Cornejo, who earns $ 9.85 an hour as a McDonald’s chef in Houston, can not afford to get sick, and co-workers will be uncomfortable wearing masks even though the fast food business needs them.
As more jurisdictions join Texas, Mississippi and other states to lift mask mandates and the easing of restrictions on businesses, many essential workers – including bartenders, restaurant waiters and retail workers – are alleviated by changes that can help the economy, but also worry that they may be less safe amid a pandemic warning health experts is far from over.
Many business owners on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi were delighted that Government Tate Reeves decided to eliminate masking requirements, restrictions on seating in restaurants, and most other binding restrictions. “But the workers themselves, especially those who already have existing conditions, are now scared,” Carney said.
“It just puts us back in a situation where we’re at the forefront again, and under the gun again,” Carney said, noting that the black Mississippians face the greatest risks as a result of Wednesday’s decision. power is. COVID-19 has affected black and Latino people in the United States excessively, and many Gulf Coast restaurants have a significant number of black employees.
Public health experts tracking the trail of more contagious virus variants have warned that lifting restrictions too soon could lead to another deadly wave of infections. Although vaccinations are accelerating rapidly as drug manufacturers increase production, many essential workers are not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in Mississippi and other states.
The Alabama health official on Friday advised residents to follow the standard recommendations for infection prevention, even though the governor is revoking the state’s mask mandate next month.
“There is nothing enchanting about the date of April 9th. “We do not want the public to think that this is the day we all stop taking precautions,” said State Health Officer Scott Harris.
The governors of Iowa, Montana, North Dakota have also terminated the masquerade 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 to state administrators and restaurant operators to develop their own guidelines.
Governors in several other states, including Michigan and Louisiana, have eased the operating limits for bars, restaurants and other businesses over the past few days.
The National Retail Federation, the largest retail association in the US, issued a statement on Wednesday urging buyers to wear masks. Some retail chains, including Target and supermarket operator Albertson, plan to continue to require it for both customers and workers in countries that no longer make them mandatory.
The president and CEO of the Texas Retailers Association, George Kelemen, said he thinks many members will still require workers – but not necessarily customers – to wear masks and other protective equipment.
“Retailers know their customers best,” he said.
McDonald’s chef Cornejo, 43, said the end of Texas’ mask mandate next week worries her because several of her co-workers were already lax in keeping their faces covered. She told co-workers that she had asked to wear their masks politely, but not always for long, over their noses.
“There are just different attitudes,” said Cornejo, whose 19-year-old son started working as a cashier at the same restaurant to pay the family’s bills. “Some say it’s just too hard to keep it going for eight hours, especially when it gets hot.”
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, urged Americans to ‘do the right thing’ by continuing to adhere to the recommendations for routine mask use and social distance – even if they lift state restrictions. .
Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said that individuals who wear masks still run the risk of becoming infected buyers and meals. He called on the Texas government, Greg Abbott, to lift COVID-19 restrictions from March 10, “far too soon and completely too carelessly.”
While deaths and newly confirmed cases nationwide dropped from their peaks in January, they are still running at high levels, while outbreak indicators have risen in some states over the past few weeks. In Mississippi, for example, the 7-day average of the virus positivity rate rose from 11.47% on February 19 to 12.14% on March 5, and the state’s 7-day average daily deaths increase during the same period then from 15 per day to 20.71 per day.
Workers in cities who still have mask mandates or jobs at businesses that enforce their own virus prevention rules expect to resist customers from their governors’ actions and are tired of taking precautions.
Molly Brooks, 25, a barista at a coffee shop at Farmers Branch, Texas, said she regularly dealt with customers who walked out of her and her colleagues or bullied them when asked to wear a mask. wear. Brooks is worried about how they are going to enforce the rule, which the coffee shop plans to maintain, now that the governor of Texas has lifted the mandate for the entire mask.
“We’re getting ready for the emotional toll it’s going to take,” said the 25-year-old barista, who started working at the coffee shop in November while looking for a job in education. “The people who do not want to carry it are still going to fight … and now they will have even more ammunition.”
Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, home of the University of Mississippi, needs masks and allows only eight customers at a time. Although general manager Lyn Roberts believes the rules will make many customers feel safe, bookstore employee Paul Fyke said he observed a change in Oxford almost as soon as the council of mayors elected to follow the governor’s leader and did away with the mask mandate of the university town.
“I mean, even if you drive home, you already see that there were places where it triumphed for a lot of people,” he said on Thursday, a day after Oxford’s mask requirement ended. “They were happy to remove them.”
Still, some workers are hopeful that fewer restrictions will provide more customers, tips and job security after a year’s short try.
In San Francisco, where the mayor last week announced the return of indoor eateries and the reopening of movie theaters and gyms, Dino Keres has no doubt about serving drinks to customers who end up at the bar in Sam’s Grill.
This is partly because he was on the verge of getting his second dose of vaccine, but also because no one in the staff was infected when inside meals were briefly allowed last fall. In addition, masks are needed unless people are eating, and inside seating is limited to 25% of capacity.
“We’ve been through it once and the timing feels right to try again,” Keres said Thursday.
Ro Hart, an assistant general manager and hostess at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco, said the return of indoor eateries in the city evoked a mixture of joy and anxiety.
“We’re glad we can earn more income, but we’re also a little nervous because we have to be more careful that everyone keeps wearing their masks when they are not eating,” Hart said. much more concerned if San Francisco does not need masks.
“We feel with our siblings at all the restaurants in Texas,” she said.
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Associated Press writers Alexandra Olson and Joseph Pisani in New York; David Koenig in Dallas; Dee-Ann Durbin in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, contributed to this story.