6 hours ago
When the news Tony Sands had waited more than a year to hear finally broke the afternoon of April 6, the Vice President of the Bowling Centers of Southern California organization sat in his car and cried.
The proprietor of Jewel City Bowl in Glendale and Matador Bowl in Northridge had just gotten done with a golf outing and was about to drive to a meeting. Minutes earlier, California Governor Gavin Newsom had announced that the state’s 1.6-percent COVID-test positivity rate, as well as the expectation that 30 million Californians would be vaccinated by the end of April, meant the state could fully reopen by June 15.
As California reopens further, wariness remains more than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Residents wonder: Is it too soon to return to normality?
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The gamblers, donning masks, couldn’t display their best poker faces on Monday at the Bicycle Hotel & Casino. But they were able to play indoors for the first time in more than one year.
“I feel safer now,” said Ming Huang, 70, a retired accountant who recently received a COVID-19 vaccine. “Cases are down. Time to come back. Nothing better to do.”
But Chris Lopez, 43, couldn’t stop looking behind his back, making sure people weren’t too close to him at the club in Bell Gardens, where partitions separate the players. After a few hands, he left in such a hurry that he didn’t even cash in his chips.