Frustration mounts as Sacramento County remains in COVID-19 red tier – KCRA Sacramento

Sacramento spends another week in the red tier as other major cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, move into the least restrictive yellow tier. “That was not on the business plan at all,” said Ross Rojek, co-owner of Capital Books in downtown Sacramento. “I see downtown getting busier, I see people without masks, which I think is part of the problem.” Capital Books survived the worst of the pandemic. But operating under public health restrictions for any business is less than ideal. Rojek said he hopes more people continue to take the COVID-19 outbreak seriously, so restrictions can continue to be loosened.”There needs to be clearer direction on the facts that masks keep other people you don’t know safe,” he added. ” more enforcement of the places that are really lax about the rules and that don’t care. I think you have more people who are arguing they should be able to come in the store because they have gotten vaccinated. To which we say, we don’t know if everyone here has gotten vaccinated.””We are all in this together, it just doesn’t always feel like we have that practice, that attitude,” said customer Shelley Dildey. “I wish people would take it more seriously or at least be more thoughtful about how other people feel about it.”Further down K Street, Takumi Abe, the head chef of Kodaiko, says he’s doing everything he can to keep his ramen restaurant afloat. “Our business was getting busier every month we were open, then come February, we had a 60% loss in revenue,” he said, reflecting on business since the pandemic began. All of Abe’s workers are vaccinated. But staying in the red tier means more restrictions, which means less business. “We need people to feel comfortable again being out,” Abe said.On Tuesday, Dr. Olivia Kasirye, the Sacramento County public health officer, acknowledged Sacramento is lagging behind other counties.”We still have hope we will get to the orange tier before June 15. But we have to see the trend continuing to go downwards to do that,” said Kasirye. “We are progressing slowly in the right direction.”Kasirye listed several reasons behind Sacramento staying in the red tier.”We know the number of people seeking testing has dropped a bit, so that could be contributing to why we are lagging behind,” she said. “We know there are several reports of variants in the Sacramento region and that could be contributing to the stagnation in cases.”

Sacramento spends another week in the red tier as other major cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, move into the least restrictive yellow tier.

“That was not on the business plan at all,” said Ross Rojek, co-owner of Capital Books in downtown Sacramento. “I see downtown getting busier, I see people without masks, which I think is part of the problem.”

Capital Books survived the worst of the pandemic. But operating under public health restrictions for any business is less than ideal. Rojek said he hopes more people continue to take the COVID-19 outbreak seriously, so restrictions can continue to be loosened.

“There needs to be clearer direction on the facts that masks keep other people you don’t know safe,” he added. “[There could be] more enforcement of the places that are really lax about the rules and that don’t care. I think you have more people who are arguing they should be able to come in the store because they have gotten vaccinated. To which we say, we don’t know if everyone here has gotten vaccinated.”

“We are all in this together, it just doesn’t always feel like we have that practice, that attitude,” said customer Shelley Dildey. “I wish people would take it more seriously or at least be more thoughtful about how other people feel about it.”

Further down K Street, Takumi Abe, the head chef of Kodaiko, says he’s doing everything he can to keep his ramen restaurant afloat.

“Our business was getting busier every month we were open, then come February, we had a 60% loss in revenue,” he said, reflecting on business since the pandemic began.

All of Abe’s workers are vaccinated. But staying in the red tier means more restrictions, which means less business.

“We need people to feel comfortable again being out,” Abe said.

On Tuesday, Dr. Olivia Kasirye, the Sacramento County public health officer, acknowledged Sacramento is lagging behind other counties.

“We still have hope we will get to the orange tier before June 15. But we have to see the trend continuing to go downwards to do that,” said Kasirye. “We are progressing slowly in the right direction.”

Kasirye listed several reasons behind Sacramento staying in the red tier.

“We know the number of people seeking testing has dropped a bit, so that could be contributing to why we are lagging behind,” she said. “We [also] know there are several reports of variants in the Sacramento region and that could be contributing to the stagnation in cases.”