Texas Bar Owner Bans Customers With Masks: This Is “Push Back Against The Snitches And Contact Tracers”

Austin’s NBC News affiliate reports:

No entrance with a mask. A local tavern in Elgin has banned its customers from coming in covered up. The statement posted outside the tavern reads, “Due to our concern for our citizens, if they feel the need to wear a mask, then they should probably stay home until it’s safe.”

“It is more of a push back — the snitches, and the contact tracers out there,” said Kevin Smith, Co-Owner of the Liberty Tree Tavern. “This is still a rural county.” Any bars that reopen are supposed to keep in-person service at 25% occupancy, but there are no outdoor occupancy limits at any bars that do have a patio area.

The state reported its largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases May 17, the Sunday before the bar reopened, but the Department of State Health Services said a large number of those cases were the result of targeted testing of meat plant workers in Randall and Potter counties.