ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Prince George's County has been one of the hardest-hit areas in our region during this pandemic. Next door in Anne Arundel, they're reopening cautiously, with baby steps. Some people think even that is too much.
On the roads and on the water, the lure of a summerlike day had some people raring to go. Others, not so much.
"I haven't been to the grocery store for five weeks," Leslie Prewitt of Anne Arundel County said, noting she's in no hurry to head out.
Prewitt thinks the governor and the county executive may be moving too fast to reopen.
"I would hate to be the one to get COVID and infect three people who then infect 10 people and three of them die," she said.
Prewitt runs a nonprofit biotech training institute in Baltimore, and that's staying closed too.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, beauty salons and barber shops like Salon 3 in Annapolis are allowed to let in one person at a time, by appointment only.
"We own this building, we owe two mortgages on it," Salon 3 co-owner Kelly Fisher said.
But for Fisher, the health risks outweigh her financial hardship.
She's staying closed.
"I'd rather be safe than sorry," she said, standing outside the salon in a mask.
But at City Dock in Annapolis, scores of people with spring fever were out without masks, holding hands and walking in crowds.
"I'm not a paranoid type of person," one woman said, while enjoying the lunchtime sun. "I think there's a point in time where we have to be open," her friend said.
"I'm just happy to be somewhat back to normal life," one teen said. "I can't take it too much longer."
It was all much to the chagrin of Mayor Gavin Buckley (D-Annapolis), a politician who was trying to take photos with babies at a social distance.
He's worried about people pouring into town from around the state and perhaps even farther.
"I think that's the challenge isn't it," Buckley said. "We are worried about that."
In a county that's seen hundreds of COVID deaths, they're bracing for a weekend onslaught of people who are tired of being cooped up.