Sonomans cautiously remove their masks

The parking lot was packed at Sonoma Market on West Napa Street on June 15. Tuesdays are “Senior Discount Day” at the iconic Sonoma Valley grocery, and the patrons streaming toward the store’s entrance fit the profile, for the most part. The vast majority of customers on Tuesday wore masks from their cars to the store’s entrance, and kept them firmly in place once inside.

But Lorene Reed stood unmasked near the market’s smoothie counter. “Yippee!” she exclaimed. “We can breathe again.” Reed said that she’d reluctantly complied with COVID protocols throughout the pandemic, but was frustrated by inconsistencies in the government health guidelines. Today, however, Reed was just happy. “I’m so excited about the town opening up again. Smiling faces! Human connection!” she said.

The employees at Sonoma Market, on the other hand, were 100 percent masked. “Yeah, we’re still doing it,” said a clerk who was restocking the wine aisle.

Assistant Store Director Vicente Osequeda said the ongoing mask standard for employees was a dictate of Cal/OSHA, the state agency that monitors workplace safety ‒ but he said he was expecting an update on those instructions later in the week.

Was it strange to encounter unmasked patrons in the store? “Just like we got used to wearing the masks, it’ll take a while for it to feel normal to see people without them," Osequeda said.

A unmasked woman with a gray ponytail pushed her cart toward the exit. “It’s time,” she said of the end of the mask mandate. “It’s past time, in fact. We can’t breathe in those things, and besides, they don’t work.”

Local businesses expressed relief they don’t have to enforce rules anymore under California’s tiered system of health and safety protocols that mostly expired on Tuesday with the exception of sectors like hospitals and public transportation and prisons.

On Thursday June 17, California regulators were expected to approve revised worksite pandemic rules allowing employees fully vaccinated against the coronavirus to remove their masks in their workplaces.

Among the businesses most relieved about the state reopening are gyms and fitness centers, whose clients the past year were asked to endure many workouts wearing face coverings.

“People absolutely hated working out in masks,” said Sonoma Fit owner Adam Kovacs as he walked around his Highway 12 gym on June 15. “It’s just not a comfortable experience when you’re breathing hard and sweating.” Kovacs – who believes gyms were targeted unfairly by Gov. Gavin Newsom – feels strongly the lifting of the mask mandate “couldn’t come soon enough, and didn’t.”

As the pandemic wore on and his gym remained closed, Kovacs was unsure if his Sonoma location ‒ one of three sites that include Petaluma and Novato ‒ would survive the pandemic. His gym lost more than 50 percent of its members. “The last thing people need is an excuse to not work out,” he said.

Member Emily Weber has been taking spin classes at Sonoma Fit since its partial reopening in March.

“I love being back inside and maskless,” she said early Tuesday. “It was kind of nice spinning outdoors but there’s nothing like the energy inside the room here when it’s loud, dark and packed – and it never would have worked with masks on.”

Jennifer Anderson, general manager of Parkpoint Healthclubs, said that the vast majority of her members seemed pleased to arrive Tuesday to work out maskless.

Signs outside and inside the gym remind members that they must still wear a mask if they aren’t yet fully vaccinated.

“(Business owners) have to trust people to do the right thing,” she said. “It’s an honor system.”

Anderson said that business is “going in the right direction” but noted that it will be a slow rebuild.

“A lot of our members were waiting until every aspect of the club had reopened and now our whirlpools and steam rooms are back and people are excited about that,” she said.

Looking ahead, Kovacs said a lot depends on how things shake out over the next six months.

“Gyms aren’t having a V-shape recovery like restaurants and hotels. We can’t get members back overnight, it’s going to take time.” But on Tuesday, he says, they came in to Sonoma Fit “thrilled to see each other, to work out together and get back a sense of normalcy.”

With additional reporting by Press Democrat staff.