The sunny weather has drawn crowds to San Francisco’s Dolores Park, where people Sunday were split about whether the situation there was safe.
Ann Cromey and her 90-year-old husband Robert take daily walks around their neighborhood park.
“I’m not especially judgmental, but I do wish when we’re walking out that they would see that for elderly people it’s dangerous if they’re not wearing masks,” Cromey said.
Her husband agreed.
“I think the people ought to look out for the older people a little bit,” he said.
UCSF infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong sounded the alarm on the number of people not wearing masks within their social circles at Dolores Park last week. Since then, he said not much has changed.
“In fact, it seemed to be more crowded yesterday with bongo drums and rhythmic music, which is all great, but specifically around COVID-19 people are trying to stay within circles but many people were spilling over,” Chin-Hong said.
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Aspiring music artist Lucky Luchi was one person at the park not wearing a mask. He said his great-grandmother recently contracted the virus but he thinks hand washing over mask wearing is more effective.
“I’m not wearing my mask cause I was walking with my friend, I’m not displaying any symptoms,” he said. “I’m definitely courteous to everyone going through this virus. It’s a tough time for a lot of people.”
San Francisco parks officials said they are looking to step up their outreach efforts. On Saturday alone rangers spoke to over 1,000 people and gave out 400 masks.
But the call for stricter enforcement will have to come from the city’s health department, the mayor’s office or law enforcement.
