Help businesses by practicing precautions

Posted 4/1/21

On April 9, many of the Safer at Home restrictions are scheduled to expire. While President Joe Biden has called on governors and mayors to extend mask mandates, Gov. Kay Ivey has indicated that she …

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Help businesses by practicing precautions

Posted

On April 9, many of the Safer at Home restrictions are scheduled to expire. While President Joe Biden has called on governors and mayors to extend mask mandates, Gov. Kay Ivey has indicated that she does not plan to continue the requirements for face coverings in public.

Alabama residents have been waiting a long time for COVID-19 restrictions to be lifted. Many of us are tired of the restrictions. We have been through a great deal in the last year and it has not just been the need to remember a mask. Businesses have suffered. Jobs have been lost.

Thousands of Alabama families have lost even more. More than 10,000 deaths statewide have been attributed to the coronavirus.

As anxious as we are to begin to get back to normal, however, we should remember that the need for precautions is still there. Health officials still recommend that social distancing be practiced and, yes, masks continue to be worn.

At the recent Eggs and Issues meeting of the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce, Rosemary Elebash, state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, pointed out that COVID-19 has hit small businesses hard in Alabama.

One reason that people have called for COVID restrictions to be lifted is to allow stores, restaurants, hair salons, theaters and others to get back to business. Our small businesses, almost 400,000 of them in Alabama, are the backbone of our economy and we need them back in operation.

At the same time, however, we should understand that the threat is not over, and sensible precautions are still a good idea, even if they are no longer a state mandate.

Employees who return to work are not helped if they are infected by customers. A small business owner who loses valuable employees or who is incapacitated herself is still being hurt by COVID-19 even if the restrictions have been lifted.

Those of us who are serious about the need to help our businesses and our fellow citizens get through the pandemic need to remember that one way to help is to continue to practice those precautions. Wear that irritating mask and keep one’s distance in line and when dealing with others.

After next week, it may not be the law, but it is still a good idea.