Mark Halsey, an employee at Herrick Hardware in Southampton, speaks to customers...

Mark Halsey, an employee at Herrick Hardware in Southampton, speaks to customers about allowing only two people in their store at a time and only those with masks on Wednesday. Credit: Newsday / Steve Pfost

Shoppers in Southampton Village, like many of their peers from Los Angeles to New Jersey, must wear face masks to enter the very few essential businesses still permitted to be open during the pandemic, such as groceries and drugstores.

Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren issued the emergency order, effective Friday, as the resort town’s population has swelled with out-of-towners who usually do not arrive until Memorial Day.

It also requires essential stores to equip their workers with masks and gloves.

Anyone venturing outside also is encouraged to wear a face covering, the mayor said.

Stores can refuse to admit people who are not wearing masks though they are not required for children younger than 2 years old; pickups or deliveries must be arranged for those who cannot wear a mask for medical reasons, the order says, adding such customers do not have to prove their ailments with medical documents.

The dreaded novel coronavirus is so tiny that nonmedical masks might not block them. However, the experts add, the virus usually is contained in larger droplets — which can be thought of as mirror-fogging moisture from someone’s breath — and cloth or construction masks can block them.

Elected leaders and physicians have asked people to reserve medical masks for health care workers who all too often are battling the killer virus without proper safeguards.

Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren walks along Main Street on Wednesday.

Southampton Village Mayor Jesse Warren walks along Main Street on Wednesday. Credit: Newsday / Steve Pfost

With The Associated Press

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