Businesses Demonstrating that a Safe Reopening is Achievable

This has been a challenging year for communities across California as we work to navigate the virtually unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the mounting economic pressures that have followed in its wake. It has forced wholesale changes in how we live our day-to-day lives and required us all to adapt as we learn how to best protect ourselves and those around us.

Members of the business community, especially indoor retail stores and shopping centers, have helped to set an example for how to do this while following health officials’ guidance in order to reopen and restart our economy in a way that is safe for Californians. 

Both elected officials like myself as well as citizens across California have seen first hand how these stores have adopted a host of new practices designed to protect customers and employees while also enabling them to remain open. Retail businesses, for example, were quick to adopt rules that require anyone in a store to wear a mask, while also following local capacity limits and enforcing safe social distancing practices among store guests. They also enhanced existing cleaning and sanitization protocols to ensure that stores remained a safe place to visit amid the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Now, research is indicating that their efforts have been successful, demonstrating how retail stores, which have closely followed all the necessary health and safety practices, have not been major drivers of new spikes in COVID-19 cases. In fact, one recent study found that reverting back to retail shutdowns akin to those implemented earlier in the pandemic can actually contribute to the spread of the virus. 

This thankfully has not gone unnoticed by local and state officials in California.

In enforcing new COVID-19 restrictions recently, Governor Gavin Newsom allowed retail stores to continue operating at 20 percent capacity. This has been reiterated at the local level by leaders like Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who are also allowing retail stores to operate with a limited capacity. 

Ultimately, it is the right decision, and one that acknowledges it is possible to keep Californians safe while also limiting the economic damage that the pandemic has already wrought. 

If retail businesses had been forced to shut down once more, California would risk another rapid rise in unemployment along similar lines to the one that gripped the state over this past summer. Small businesses, many of which just barely survived earlier shutdowns and are still struggling, would doubtlessly be forced to close once and for all. 

The impact of this would fall heavily on many of the Californians who have already struggled a great deal this year, such as Black and Latino Californians, who saw especially high levels of unemployment during previous business closures. Similarly, the hourly workers who need retail stores to remain open so they can continue supporting themselves and their families would be facing a significant risk had those stores been forced to close.

As our leading health experts learn more about the steps each of us can take to limit the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, we are further empowered to allow low-risk businesses like retail stores that are implementing the necessary precautionary measures to remain open and provide the boost our communities need during this critical time.

The state’s leaders were right to recognize this with their recent actions, and in the process have put the state in a stronger position to safely and successfully recover from the difficulties we have all faced this year. Countless businesses, such as those in retail, across the state have already reopened in a safe fashion, and are playing a key role in helping California get back on its feet.

Bernadette Suarez serves as the Mayor Pro Tem for the city of Lawndale, California