Sacramento, Yolo County Restaurants Prepare To Enforce Mask Mandates For All Again
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — As of Friday, masks are back to mandatory for everyone in Sacramento and Yolo counties.
This is the latest response to a surge in COVID-19 cases connected to the Delta variant. Some Sacramento business owners said the mandate is a relief. For others, it hit a little harder than previous mandates had.
"We're all vaccinated, everyone we know is vaccinated. So we were feeling like hooray were going to be back to normal," said John Blunck, the co-owner of Pressed Record Cafe.
Some restaurant owners feel like their hands are tied as they battle both a staffing shortage and enforcing a mandate many thought they were done with.
"There's not much we can really do besides serve the service," said Ricky Stout, the manager at Buckhorn Grill. "Usually we typically ask them to wear a mask and if they don't want to wear one, we don't want to lose sales so we're not going to tell them no."
Last week, the Thirsty Goat bar in Woodland shut down for safety reasons after staff became infected with COVID. That included manager Ashley Delgado, who implemented her own mask requirement for all before Yolo County did.
"I just kind of felt like it was a matter of time before this happened," Delgado said.
She said the county's decision reduces some of the stress and pressure on businesses that are careful about safety.
"It's definitely easier than having each business have to make their own decision. It's really nice to have the counties backing us and just making a blanket decision," Delgado said.
Blunck said he helped open the Pressed Record Cafe in Sacramento just two months ago, fully anticipating more pandemic back and forth.
"We were kind of expecting something like this to happen again," he said. "We have masks. It's no big deal. It's not the end of the world."
