Local shop and restaurant owners are considering responding to the CDC’s recommendations that fully vaccinated individuals return to wearing masks indoors.
DALLAS – Sometimes Denise Manoy catches herself dreaming of predictable days.
But it’s been a long time since those days existed.
The owner of Indigo 1745, a boutique in the Bishop Arts neighborhood of Dallas, has had more battles to contend with in the past 18 months than she thought possible: shutdowns, a partial reopening, capacity limits, a historic winter storm, a major labor shortage and – perhaps the most tiresome of all – getting customers to wear masks.
“We learned to roll with the punches and just deal with whatever was assigned to us,” said Manoy.
Tuesday brought another blow when the CDC announced a change in guidelines.
The CDC now recommends even fully vaccinated people to wear masks indoors again in places with high or significant spread of COVID.
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North Texas falls into this category.
The recommendation forces business owners like Manoy to make the difficult decision of whether to reintroduce the mask requirement for customers.
“I was surprised it was just a suggestion,” Manoy said of the CDC’s guidelines.
She has been watching closely as the number of COVID cases and hospital admissions increase as the Delta variant spreads rapidly in northern Texas and the rest of the country, and said she assumed the mask instructions would come.
W. Stephen Love, President and CEO of DFW Hospital Council, admitted that shop and restaurant owners are in a precarious position, especially in Texas, so he’s not sure if masking requirements would work.
“I think a mask mandate brings with it people who have really strong feelings both ways,” he said.
But with public health at risk, he said very encouraging masks for customers, while required for employees, are a great way forward.
RELATED: Governor Abbott Says There Will Be No More Mask Mandates
“When you wear a mask, you are helping to ease the workload of frontline health workers,” he said, adding that the last 30 days of COVID hospitalizations in the region that includes northern Texas have tripled.
CDC’s guidelines on masks changed several times during the pandemic, but that’s to be expected, Love said, as knowledge about the virus has grown and expanded.
While Governor Greg Abbott has banned government-enforced mask mandates, individual businesses can make masks mandatory in their store.
But then it’s up to the employees to enforce those guidelines.
RELATED: VIDEO: Woman tosses groceries into a Dallas grocery store after workers ask her to wear a mask
The Texas Retailers Association said the hard work becomes even more difficult when that responsibility falls directly on the shoulders of the frontline retail workers.
“Retailers will obey any county or state mandate. But when it’s voluntary or recommended, retailers will do what they feel best for their customers and employees, ”said Gary Huddleston of the Texas Retailers Association.
“It’s a balancing act and we only ask for common sense.”
In the hours after the CDC announced its revised guidelines, Manoy wasn’t entirely sure what her next step would be.
“I think I have to get some sleep on it before I make up my mind,” she said.
“It’s the strangest time we’ve had in our lives, but we’ll keep making the best of it. That’s all we can do. “
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