By JORDAN ESSOE/YachatsNews.com
You can take off your mask Saturday, if you want.
But frontline and essential workers, who have been required to wear masks unrelentingly for two years, are not unanimous in their decisions to put them away.
A two-year-old state mandate that people wear face masks in indoor public places ends at midnight Friday, putting the choice to wear protective face coverings largely back in the hands of individuals.
The public and employees will still have to mask up in health care facilities, nursing homes and public transit. Every other type of local business and government plan to make masks optional for employees and the public beginning Saturday.
But a range of frontline employees surveyed by YachatsNews plan to continue to wear masks at work – at least for the immediate future.
No matter what the store policy is at Ray’s Food Place in Waldport, cashier Donna Cleland still plans to wear a mask. “I might take it off when the store is empty, but as soon as a customer is in front of me, the mask will go back up,” Cleland told YachatsNews. “At least for as long as cold and flu season is going on.”
Very few employees asked about their mask preferences mentioned Covid as a reason for concern and no one mentioned the virus by name. Although the pandemic was always implied by the context of the conversation, there remains a social stigma against fear of Covid, and it was more common for people to describe the benefit of masks as providing protection from the seasonal flu or the common cold.
Sherry Koskela, Ray’s assistant store manager, said she is also tempted to continue wearing a mask. “Not having a cold in a long time has been nice,” said Koskela, who has asthma.
In contrast, Ray’s cashier Marty Couture, who has used a face shield at work instead of a mask, is eager to cast off all face coverings.
“I’ll take it off in about half a heartbeat,” said Couture. “It’s been difficult for two years wearing it, dealing with a hundred people a day.”
Not everyone who feels that way is waiting for Saturday.
At Ace Hardware in Waldport, store manager Wendy Hyatt and employee Kenneth Sides have already removed their masks at work. Sides said he was triple vaccinated and “the law is about to change anyway.”
Adobe Resort front desk staffer Candy Joerg doesn’t plan to wear a mask when shopping but will use a mask at work because of exposure to out-of-town guests who may be traveling from areas with higher infection trends or lower vaccination rates.
“Just today I booked guests from Sweden, Canada, and New York,” said Joerg. “It’s going to be a busy summer, with everyone coming out of the woodwork.”
Covid disappearing — for now
Mirroring the trend across Oregon, cases and hospitalizations have seen a dramatic decline in Lincoln County – dropping from more than 100 cases a day at the height of the omicron surge in mid-January to a current average of six cases a day.
More than 85 percent of Lincoln County residents over the age of 5 have at least one dose of a Covid vaccine and 45 percent have received a booster shot, according to the latest data from Lincoln County Public Health.
And, for the first time in months, there were no people hospitalized with Covid in the county this week, LCPH said Wednesday.
The Oregon Health Authority reported Wednesday that the number of Covid cases statewide from Feb. 28 to March 6 showed a 94 percent drop from the peak omicron level in mid-January. There were 285 Covid-related hospitalizations, a 35 percent decrease over the previous week and the lowest so far this year – and 115 fewer than the 400 hospitalization mark that Gov. Kate Brown set to drop the mask mandate.
On Thursday, the federal government announced it was developing plans to ease the nationwide mask mandate on airplanes, buses and other mass transit that was scheduled to expire March 18. Now it will be extended through April 18.
“Hopefully we’re putting the pandemic in the rearview mirror,” said Adobe Resort general manager Anthony Muirhead. “But I don’t think there is any reason to be concerned about visitors, any more than the lady that lives down the road or that you meet at the grocery store. We’re all human beings. We can all carry Covid.”
Some backlash concerns
There is a lot of vocal support in Yachats, Waldport, and Newport for employees and customers who feel inclined to remain masked.
“I will still wear a mask when I feel it’s warranted,” said Katie McNeil, baker and co-owner of Pacific Sourdough in Waldport. “We don’t have a deep bench of workers here, and I really can’t afford to get sick. I think plenty of customers will still wear masks – without judgment. My policy is no judgment.”
But there is worry about a potential backlash from some customers when employees or others continue to wear them.
“We have concerns that there are certain people in society that are just jerks, and will comment about anybody wearing a mask,” said Drew Roslund, operating partner at the Overleaf Lodge and Fireside Motel in Yachats. “And we are reinforcing with our staff that we will stand 100 percent behind them if they continue to wear their masks. If any other employees or guests react negatively towards them, we want to know about it. And we will fiercely defend out guests’ and staff’s right to wear a mask if they want to continue doing so.”
At Fresco Family Restaurant in Waldport, manager Gabino Juan Cruz will continue to wear a mask, as will his daughter and assistant manager Yareli Juan Teodocio. She does not begrudge the habit, and says she thinks masks are remarkably effective.
“Honestly, I really like them,” said Teodocio. “I’m a preschool teacher when I’m not here at the restaurant, and I haven’t gotten sick in two years.”
At Safeway supermarket in Newport, employees James Thomas and Patty Tagg will both continue to wear masks at work. Tagg says she likes how a mask protects her from both colds and allergies. Thomas suffers from asthma, but thinks in most cases the condition isn’t a determinative reason to wear a mask or refuse one.
Thomas is also looking forward to paternity leave in a few weeks and expressed some skepticism about whether state mask requirements will remain lifted for long, referencing how briefly precautions were relaxed between delta and omicron variants.
Roslund agrees things could potentially reverse course again, if a new virulent Covid variant were introduced.
“I’m not one of those that thinks it absolutely will, but I think it easily could,” he said. “You never know. There are lots of letters in the Greek alphabet left. My joke is we should have used a shorter alphabet, like the Hawaiian alphabet, and then we’d be done with this.”
What local governments, others are doing
YachatsNews reached out to Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City to ask about its masking policy, but did not get a response. Although it has had a mask policy for guests and employees, because the casino is operated by the Siletz tribe, it is not governed by state or federal mandates.
Newport’s Performing Arts Center has not yet announced its new Covid guidelines, but the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts board intends to make them public by Saturday when the last two performances of “Tarzan” are staged.
Lincoln County School District: The district, with 5,200 students and 600 employees, will follow the same protocols as most Oregon districts – masks will be optional for staff and students, including on school buses. “All masking choices will be supported,” the district said in a statement. Employees who have a medical or religious exception to getting a vaccine will still need to be tested weekly and the district will continue to require vaccination for volunteers.
Samaritan Health Services: Face masks will still be required in all health care facilities, including the clinics and hospitals of Samaritan Health Services. Acceptable masks include medical procedure face masks and N95 masks. Cloth masks, bandanas and other similar coverings will not be permitted.
Lincoln County: Masks for employees and visitors to most county offices and facilities will be optional. Courtrooms will also be mask-optional. Masks will still be required in county health clinics, on the county-run bus system, and in some areas of the jail.
Oregon Coast Community College: Masks will be optional everywhere on campus for the last two weeks of winter term but will be required in all credit classrooms and labs, as well as all health care programs. Students and employees have the option of wearing a mask elsewhere on campus, including in the commons, hallways, offices, and restrooms. Masks will be optional everywhere at the start of spring term, March 28, except for nursing and allied health programs.
Hatfield Marine Science Center and Oregon State University: Masks will be optional in most settings at OSU and its facilities, except for health care settings. OSU will no longer require people attending indoor and outdoor events to show proof of vaccination or provide proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test.
- Jordan Essoe is a Waldport-based freelance writer who can be reached at alseajournal@gmail.com