2 4Education3 Local BusinessEditorial

Local businesses get hit with COVID-19

Reese Kelem Chief Photographer

Local businesses have been struggling throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but not as severely as now, as case numbers continue to increase in Newbury Park. As a result, many local restaurant employees have contracted the coronavirus, leading to restaurants shutting down and restricting their hours.

One popular business that has been recently impacted by infection is Starbucks. Since many of these Starbucks stores share employees across town, managers decided to close multiple stores in Newbury Park in recent weeks due to an employee contracting COVID-19. David Cho, junior, has been working at the Starbucks on Wendy Drive since September, and despite the unfortunate closures, he believes management is appropriately handling the situation. “ ey keep it really professional and they always make sure to respect the partner’s privacy… No names are disclosed. It’s really professional and my manager has always called us personally,” Cho said.

Tristan Boyer, another Starbucks employee and NPHS alumnus, has been working at the Starbucks on Reino Road for one and a half years and misses customer interaction with the closures and restrictions. “Before, when I would come to work at Starbucks, I would be all happy because I could go into Starbucks and [be] like, ‘Oh, there’s gonna be all the beautiful, lovely people sitting inside that I can talk to and everything and have a good time with.’ But now, it just kind of feels like you’re in a little co ee factory where people rush in, you make the same drink 1000 times and they rush out,” Boyer said.

Unlike Cho, Boyer did not believe his bosses have been handling employees contracting COVID-19 well, as when he was exposed to a friend whose sibling had COVID-19, they would not let him call out of work. “If, you know, odds are you are around someone that has COVID…you’re not allowed to call out unless they get a positive test,” Boyer said.

Starbucks is not the only store to be hit by COVID. Several fast food chains have had to shut down. Jane Doe (name has been changed for anonymity), an NPHS alumna, has been continuously witnessing closures of her store due to multiple sta members testing positive for COVID-19.

“(My managers) don’t want anyone to know why we shut down for so they’re like, ‘Just pretend like there was a di erent issue like don’t tell them anything to do with COVID’... Basically, she just says like, ‘Oh, tell them there’s a sta ng issue,’” Doe said.

Despite these closures, many customers still have refused to wear masks inside the restaurant. “I work pretty o en. I would go in like ve or six days a week and there’s at least like one or two days out of that work week where I would have at least one encounter with an anti-masker,” Doe said. “It gets kind of heated sometimes... It gets hard to monitor all those people to do something to go along with store and county rules and everything.”

Carter Castillo/Prowler

Stimulus checks distributed to Americans in need

Emerson Fuentes-Alabanza Graphic Artist McGlauthon Fleming IV Staff Writer

On Dec. 21, Congress approved the COVID-19 relief bill that would give eligible citizens stimulus checks to help make up for unemployment across the country due to the pandemic. e bill consisted of $900 billion in order to provide $600 per person and any child dependents for all quali ed Americans.

However, before the bill was passed, former Pres. Donald Trump announced that he wanted Congress to amend the bill to allow for $2,000 per check. Congress approved, but the bill was then vetoed at the House of Representatives. e veto stuck, and Trump signed the COVID-19 relief bill and the checks were authorized to be sent to the public. e IRS and Treasury Department stated that direct deposits would begin on Dec. 29 with mail out checks being shipped on Dec. 30. is will be the second stimulus check approved and sent to citizens during the pandemic, with the rst amounting to $1,200 per person and $500 per child dependent. While this is a “light in the dark” for many Americans, many are still waiting on their checks. e IRS has set Jan. 15 as the deadline for sending out the relief funds, and a er this date, they cannot distribute any more checks. As of Jan. 22, some have gotten their stimulus funds that were sent directly from the IRS, while others have been sent their check but it is being ltered through their chosen money holding service. ose who still haven’t received their relief funds are able to claim the money through tax credits on their 2020 tax returns. By doing this their money can be expected to arrive within two to three weeks.

Talks of a third stimulus check have also been up in the air with the inauguration of Pres. Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. e third round of funds would give eligible Americans $1,400. However, this plan still needs to be approved and minor details still need to be released, so it could be weeks to months until distribution happens.