New York Stores Can Require Masks

Chris Rock, Rosie Perez help governor make his point
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted May 28, 2020 6:14 PM CDT
Cuomo: Stores Can Require Masks
A customer wearing a mask carries his purchases as he leaves a Target store in Brooklyn last month.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

With an executive order, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has given retail stores the OK to refuse admittance to anyone not wearing a mask. Shoppers "don't have the right" to expose a store owner to the virus, the governor said in his press briefing Thursday, CBS reports. He called the masks "amazingly effective" at preventing the spread of the coronavirus. If people without masks are in the store, per Newsday, the owner can throw them out. The state is in the process of reopening, except for New York City, which hasn't met the metrics set by the state yet. "I want to be able to say to every New Yorker: 'It is safe to reopen,'" the governor said.

Cuomo held the briefing at the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club in Brooklyn, and he brought celebrities to help with his pitch. "You are not just disrespecting yourself, you are disrespecting your loved ones, your communities" by not wearing a mask, Rosie Perez said, addressing Brooklyn residents. "Please, mi gente," the actress added. Comedian Chris Rock said: "The kids really aren’t wearing a mask. And you know it’s sad. It’s sad that … our health has become sort of a political issue. … It's a status symbol almost to not wear a mask." Rock said they're willing to spread the message further. "There’s a hundred thousand dead Americans, and I will go wherever, you know, I’m called," he said. (More Andrew Cuomo stories.)

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