Counties navigating transition with health orders lifted
Jun. 3—All Ohio coronavirus health orders, including mask mandates, were officially lifted Wednesday, a sign that life truly is returning to pre-pandemic normal, but some worry that a fault line forming between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated could dampen the celebration.
The vaccinated can move about the community mask-free. The unvaccinated are asked to continue masking.
The vaccinated can win $1 million or a full scholarship if signed up for the state’s Vax-a-Million lottery. The unvaccinated cannot.
The vaccinated do not have to quarantine following an exposure to coronavirus. The unvaccinated do.
Even some entertainment venues seem to be drawing lines. In Florida, Leadfoot Promotions is selling concert tickets to vaccinated individuals for $18 while charging unvaccinated individuals $999.99.
The intentions are good — health officials do want the public to be vaccinated and some of these incentives have encouraged people to be vaccinated, but they shouldn’t be used to draw battle lines, Wood County Health Commissioner Ben Robison said. Everyone is on the same team.
“I’m as concerned about a fractured community as I am about COVID,” Mr. Robison said. “We can’t overcome this disease on our own, we have to do it together.”
The Wood County Health Department released recommendations for how to navigate the transition safely and respectfully. It’s based on four guiding principles:
— Welcome your neighbor — remember, each person who lives or works in the area is a member of the community, regardless of vaccination status or mask use.
— Support one another — recognize that another person’s decisions may be motivated by different reasons than your own. Rather than focusing on differences, which could lead to divisions, consider how to build each other up.
— Keep your healthy habits — those remaining unvaccinated can fight the disease by continuing the habits that have kept us safe over the last year — social distancing, mask wearing, and proper hygiene. Everyone should monitor for symptoms of the virus and consult their doctor as appropriate.
— Stay engaged — continue to check trusted sources for the latest information on how to stay safe and healthy.
“Avoid judging others or being confrontational about vaccination status. People can have different comfort levels and still get along with each other,” the health department says in its new promotional fliers.
The same courtesy applies to businesses.
Despite the health orders being lifted, businesses retain the right to set their own policies for their stores going forward, including requiring customers to show proof of vaccination if asked, and people are expected to follow them.
National retailers, like Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Walgreens, CVS, Home Depot, and Target have already dropped mask mandates for customers who are fully vaccinated, but there is no screening process at either store to determine who actually is vaccinated and who is not.
“We will not require proof of vaccination, but we ask for members’ responsible and respectful cooperation with this revised policy,” Costco said in a statement.
Locally businesses also seem to be following suit.
James Nusbaum, CEO of Barry Bagels Franchise Holdings, said his staff will remain masked for now, but customers are on the honor system.
If they’re vaccinated, they should feel free to be in the store unmasked, he said. Those who are not vaccinated are expected to wear their face covering indoors, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
“I hope that as people continue to be vaccinated that they feel more comfortable spending time outside of their homes and being safe,” he said. “To me, that’s the most important thing, that people are safer than they were six months ago.”
Toledo City Council adopted the same policy, announcing it will be returning to in-person meetings on June 16, but unvaccinated individuals will still be required to wear masks and social distance. Spectator capacity will be limited to 39 individuals.
Paul Swanson, owner of Chevy’s Place bar in downtown Toledo, will not require staff or customers to mask. Removing the mandates was a day he’s been waiting for.
“Every bar owner has been waiting for this,” Mr. Swanson said.
Chevy’s was cited several times during the pandemic for violating the state’s safety orders. In February, for example, agents reported seeing about 100 patrons standing too close to each other in the bar with little or no facial coverings.
The bar even voluntarily closed one weekend last summer to strategize how best to control the crowds of patrons still stopping by for a drink. Some of that capacity control Mr. Swanson says he wants to maintain, but he knows patrons are tired of waiting in line outside just to get in and he wants Chevy’s to be a fun and safe place to congregate again.
“To be honest, it’s scary,” he said of the sort of post-pandemic reopening. “Everyone — bartenders, managers, customers — is so used to the COVID ways that now that we’re opened up it’s going to be another adjustment needed.”
For Madonna Fong, owner of La Luna Salon in Sylvania, seeing the faces of her customers for the first time Wednesday was a welcome relief but also slightly disconcerting. “I feel like I’m doing something wrong,” she said of baring her face for the first time since the salon reopened in June, 2020.
She’ll keep some of the dividers in place, along with the strict sanitizing, but masks will be optional, she said.
“If a client still wants to wear a mask and would like their service provider to wear a mask, they can do so,” Ms. Fong said. “The person who really should wear the mask is the person who is unvaccinated, but I cannot dictate to anyone what they should do. I’m protected and many of the people here are protected, so you hope people are honest for their own sake.”
The good news, health officials say, is that in the few weeks that restrictions already have been loosening, cases have not gone up.
Mr. Zgodzinski is predicting a slight bump in numbers after the long holiday weekend, but for the most part, the vaccines and health precautions seem to be doing their job to slow spread.
As of Tuesday nearly 45 percent of the Lucas County population has been vaccinated, according to the state health department’s dashboard. More than 50 percent of Wood County’s has been.
That means most people one may encounter in public are likely to be vaccinated and thus, don’t need to wear a mask. But health officials agree there are certain situations where both vaccinated and unvaccinated people may still want to.
Mr. Zgodzinski said he’ll continue to mask in nursing homes and health-care settings, as required, along with any businesses that request it.
Mr. Robison said he will still don the face-covering when encountering children 11 and younger who are not eligible to be vaccinated, those who are immunocompromised, or others who feel more comfortable interacting while masked. He also wears one around his own children to encourage them to keep theirs on in settings when it’s appropriate.
“I think I’m going to do a lot of mask on and mask off, because I’m not trying to navigate the risk, I’m trying to navigate the needs of the people around me,” Mr. Robison said.
Not even returning to normal is going to be an easy fix, the health officials agreed, and they’ll continue to monitor case counts to determine if the strategies are working. It’s a process the entire community will have to navigate together — together being the operative word.
“We’re going to have to live with this disease, not just this year but I think for years to come, and we’re going to have to make sure that we do the right things in our community but we also have to get back to normal,” Mr. Zgodzinski said. “We’ll just have to take each issue that comes up with COVID, address that and move on.”
First Published June 2, 2021, 11:05am
