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“Masks required” signs will soon be removed from many business storefronts across New York.
“We’ve always just updated our sign up front so that it matches with whatever is going on,” Impressions of Saratoga co-owner Mandy Zanetti said.
Citing “tremendous progress,” Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday she would allow the indoor mask mandate for indoor businesses to expire on Thursday.
What You Need To Know
- Citing “tremendous progress” Gov. Kathy Hochul is lifting the state’s indoor mask mandate for businesses
- Masks will still be required in schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other public spaces
- Hochul said the state will reassess masks in schools next month
“It is a daily thing,” Zanetti said. “We have to remind them, whether they were from out of state and they didn’t know, or they just didn’t want to wear one.”
Reinstated in December, the mask requirement came with some pushback from the public, leaving business owners in a tough spot.
“You can take your mask off now, but you have to have it on now,” The Night Owl owner Alex Straus said. “All those kind of rules get kind of cloudy.”
Straus said most patrons have been respectful, but enforcement has been a burden on him and the employees.
“It really snapped you back as a business owner, especially at a bar,” Straus said. “Here come the fines. They’re going to fine us all over again, who stood without a mask.”
With that now hopefully in the rearview, business owners are prepared to look forward.
“We opened up five months before the pandemic hit so that, first St. Patrick’s Day, we obviously go shut down, so we’re looking forward to that,” Straus said. “It’s definitely a happy day.”
Business owners said they want customers and employees to feel secure.
“We’ll have a sign up to say that it’s your choice whether you wear a mask or not, and we’ll do the same with our employees,” Zanetti said. “Because I do want everyone in here to be safe.”
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