Written by Will Seykora
The day that Californians have been waiting on for over a year has finally come, lockdowns are lifted and the mask mandate is gone. However, is everything back to normal?
For the most part, yes. If you’re vaccinated you’ll be able to go maskless to most restaurants, bars, gyms, and other businesses. However, there’s a catch, businesses will still be allowed to mandate masks or mandate that all customers be vaccinated. Since Dr. Mark Ghaly does not have any real solutions for checking this, he states “We are not requiring businesses to, for example, have somebody at the door checking for vaccine status as a way to comply with this.”
Although counties will still be allowed to add their own health restrictions, San Diego seems to be on the side of fully reopening. However, some of the guidelines will still be enforced state-wide. As of Monday, June 14th, Newsom announced that un-vaccinated workers would still need to wear masks while in the office, with businesses needing to verify vaccination status and provide masks to un-vaccinated workers.
Despite the State Of Emergency still looming over California, the state seems to be going back to business as usual. As Ben Christoper of Cal Matters wrote “…’state of emergency’ under California law doesn’t necessarily mean ’emergency’ in the everyday ‘something is on fire’ sense of the word. So as Californians look to an open, maskless future, we shouldn’t worry about Newsom trying to pull another fast one on us like he did last March.
For now, Californians should start to make summer plans and enjoy the beaches that were closed, go see family members they haven’t talked to, and be ready to recall Gavin Newsom this fall.
