NEW HAVEN, Conn. — It's deja vu for New Haven residents and visitors.
Starting today, an indoor mask mandate is back in place in the Elm City. This applies to everyone, regardless of their vaccination status. It's a city-wide mask mandate, and it's enforced in places like restaurants, bars, theaters, and government buildings.
The mandate came after New Haven County entered into a category of "high transmission," according to the CDC. That means more than 100 cases per 100,000 people have popped up in the last week.
The governor signed an executive order last week allowing municipalities to take further action and require masks. New Haven's Mayor Justin Elicker did not hesitate to do just that.
"I'm actually in a weird way feeling optimistic because I feel like we've been here before," said Alexander Gonzalez of New Haven.
Gonzalez visits East Rock Coffee on a daily basis and when he got there today, he was greeted by a sign asking customers to follow the new mandate.
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"The main concern for me is not the masks," explained Gonzalez. "For me, the main concern is city mandates closing businesses again."
Business owners agree that it's tough for them to enforce a mandate. However, In the East Rock neighborhood, they say there haven't been too many issues.
"It just is what it is," said Mackenzie Rybicki, the General Manager of East Rock Coffee. "You know, I'm not thrilled about it but I want to stay safe,"
Just around the corner sits P&M Fine Foods in New Haven. The owner of that store, "Pino" Ciccone, feels the same way.
"It is very tough. There will be customers or employees that are not going to like certain things," Ciccone said. "We just have to think about the community at this point."
While P&M put its signs up asking customers to wear masks over the weekend, Ciccone had started asking his employees to mask up again about two weeks ago, regardless of their vaccination status.
"I know customers will feel more comfortable seeing us with masks," Ciccone said.
Around the same time, as COVID cases continued to rise, customers also began to change their routine.
"There was a while where I stopped wearing masks because it seemed like we were coming out of this," explained Nick Nugent of New Haven. "But then the delta news kind of changed everything."
Though vaccinated, Nugent doesn't mind masking up if it means keeping others safe.
"It's really a small price to pay, I think," Nugent said.
In the meantime, the owner of P&M said they're still facing a staffing shortage and they're now having trouble getting their hands on supplies like hand sanitizer.
If customers forget their own masks, don't worry – they have a few extra.
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