Businesses respond to Sacramento County indoor masking recommendation

By Stephanie Lin

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    SACRAMENTO COUNTY, California (KCRA) — Local business operators are gearing up for yet another change in public health guidelines in Sacramento County. Public health officials announced on Thursday that people are strongly recommended to wear face masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

“We have to make sure the safety is there, because we don’t want anyone to catch [COVID-19],” said Andy Leung, owner of T4, a boba tea shop in Sacramento. “If one of my staff catches it, all my staff can catch it, so we’ve got to be vigilant.”

Staff at T4 have kept their face masks on since the public health shutdowns began. While most of the team is vaccinated, they plan to follow the county’s recommendation to wear face coverings indoors.

“I think we should do everything we can to be as safe as possible,” said customer John Chapman, who added he was happy to follow the guidelines to keep his daughter safe. At 9-years-old, she still does not qualify to be vaccinated.

“She may not have symptoms, but she could come into contact with an elderly person that could develop a more serious condition,” added Chapman.

Food service worker Christian Tomilloso spoke in favor of the new guidelines, but spoke to the challenges of asking customers to wear their masks.

“Especially at the beginning of the pandemic where there was a lot of people going around without masks. They would get pretty confrontational,” recalled Tomilloso. “[It was] very stressful. I wouldn’t expect just wearing your mask over your face to be such a big deal to certain people… especially when it’s something so simple to keep everyone safe, really.”

Only 47% of Sacramento County’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

In Elk Grove, masked customers waited to be seated at Taiwanese restaurant, Tasty Pot. While restaurants no longer face capacity limits, manager Andy Yu says he’s still socially distancing diners by table. He agreed with the county’s recommendation, but said he could not ask his customers to keep their face coverings on to eat.

We asked Yu if he worried that his business could be asked to shut down again, as delta variant cases continue to rise.

“I have to leave that question to the experts,” he said, adding his team was continuing to keep an eye on public health guidance from the city and local health inspector.

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