Frustration with measures imposed to counter the spread of COVID-19 is boiling over in areas here and there across the country, with restaurants often finding themselves unwittingly on the battle line.
In the first three hours that restaurant dining room were allowed last Friday to reopen in Stillwater, Okla., employees were “threatened with physical violence and showered with verbal abuse” after informing patrons that a face mask was required for entry, according to Mayor Will Joyce. In at least one instance, an irate customer pulled out a gun.
“Many of those with objections cite the mistaken belief the requirement is unconstitutional, and under their theory, one cannot be forced to wear a mask,” said Joyce, who had imposed the requirement under his emergency mayoral powers.
Even though the mayor has the right to require restaurant customers to wear a mask, “we cannot, in clear conscience, put our local business community in harm’s way,” Joyce said in a statement. “Accordingly, we will now be asking our local stores and businesses to encourage, but not require, patrons to cover their faces.”
The requirement obliged would-be customers to wear a mask just while they waited for a table. Once seated, they could remove the protective wear.
Joyce noted in reversing his policy that restaurants and stores reserved the right to stick with a mask requirement, just as they could deny service to any patron who refuses to wear a shirt or shoes.
Meanwhile, two counties in California have joined rural Modoc County on the northern border of the state in defying Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order that restaurant dining rooms remain closed. As of today, restaurants in Sutter and Yuba counties can resume dine-in service provided they keep parties at least 6 feet apart and only seat members of the same household at a table.
A plan for reopening restaurant dining rooms and other commercial facilities in the state is expected from Newsom later this week.
Authorities have not revealed or speculated on the motivation of a woman who was arrested in Sumter, S.C., for licking her hands and then touching the bills she provided to pay for her $15 meal last week at the Sub Station II restaurant. Thirty-eight-year-old Shenir Holliday also took quarters out of a tip jar, licked them and returned them to the container, and also tongued her palm and pressed it against a credit card reader. Employees said Holliday laughed while she engaged in the violations of safety protocols.
She was arrested after similarly licking her hands and touching surfaces at a local IGA supermarket.
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