Masks are still required for unvaccinated people and remain compulsory for everyone in airports, hospitals, K-12 schools, medical settings and shelters. But gone is the rule that people mask up when visiting, say, a shop, theater or government office.

And the grocery store. To breathe maskless in the grocery store is a wonderful thing, if only for the ability to moisten your fingertips and open those compostable plastic produce bags with ease. Also, to be able to read the grocery aisle signs through glasses free of the fog that masks create. What greater bliss?

But the pandemic is not over. The coronavirus’ highly infectious omicron variant is still at large. Thousands of people remain unvaccinated, and many are still getting sick and spreading the infection. Though no longer compulsory, masks are still recommended.

Curious how people responded to their first day of mask freedom since mid-December, The Chronicle sent reporters to three groceries around the bay to find out. Between 9 am and 10 am on Wednesday, the reporters also counted how many people wore masks, or did not, as they exited the stores.

The verdict: it appeared that some people had not heard the news, while many others still chose to wear face coverings. Fewer than 10% of the shoppers we tallied were mask-free. Here’s a sampling of what we found.

Trader Joe’s

337 3rd St., San Rafael

“I might be one of the only ones without a mask,” said a smiling Jan Horn, 68, a homemaker, as she left the store. Horn said she felt comfortable being unmasked inside the store, protected by her two vaccinations and one booster – and by Marin’s high vaccination rate. She noticed no stares or nasty glances. “I was ready,” she said. “It feels great, much more comfortable. I love it. ”

Alan and Susan Katz, both 75 and retired, said they felt more comfortable in indoor public spaces with masks on. “I’m probably going to continue to wear them indoors for a while,” Alan Katz said. “I do not really see any reason not to.” If the coronavirus continues to weaken, he said he may consider taking off his mask. Susan Katz said she’ll probably keep hers on indoors – at least until kids younger than 5 can be vaccinated. “We have little grandchildren and want to make sure we can protect them,” she said.

Tom Hendricks did not even think of leaving the mask home. “I’m a creature of habit,” said Hendricks, 83, as he and his wife, Faye Hendricks, pushed a loaded cart out of the store. Out in the open air, they removed their masks. When might he doff his face covering indoors? “I think I’ll wear it into the beyond,” he said. “I think COVID is going to go on.”

Rainbow Grocery

1745 Folsom St., San Francisco

Marianne Bennett Budin, 71 and masked, was pulling out her shopping cart and getting ready to shop when a reporter mentioned that masks were no longer required. Budin took it off immediately. “I’ve been vaccinated three times. I’ve received my federal COVID-19 test kits, ”said Budin, who lives in Sacramento. “Polio has been a major epidemic for many, many years. This is something we have to live with. ”

La Tigre Waters also yanked off her mask when told about the new rules. Why? Because of lipstick, of course. “It gets so messed up,” said Waters, 35, before heading, maskless, down aisle 10.

Yara Reid, a teacher, said her mask will stay on in indoor public spaces until she gets the news that no one – regardless of vaccination status – is ending up in the hospital with COVID. Since the pandemic began, Reid, 39, has briefly removed her mask only twice indoors with strangers. After one of the gatherings, she said, half the people wound up with COVID. She was not one of them. So she considers the mask freedoms a helpful guideline, nothing more. “Guidelines can only protect me so much,” Reid said. “I need to take care of myself.”

Alameda Natural Grocery

1650 Park St, Alameda

Tommy Speer, 43, said he had COVID three times. The rave organizer from Oakland – unvaccinated, unmasked and unconcerned – called the lifting of the mask mandate “amazing.” “It should’ve been done a long time ago,” he said. What he may not have realized, or cared about, was that as an unvaccinated person, he still had to wear a mask. Yet he was able to enter the store unmasked and buy a takeout salad. Speer, a diamond earring sparkling beneath an Airpod in his left ear, said that even his children were not vaccinated – for anything. “Never will be.”

With time to spare before meeting a customer, Emma Tuttle of San Francisco popped into the island’s natural food store to browse. Fully masked, Tuttle, 24, did not know the covering was no longer required until a reporter gave her the news. She said she was excited. “I do not like wearing my mask inside,” she said, adding that she was fully boosted. Still, she made no move to remove the surgical mask that matched her black hi tops. She gazed at her fellow shoppers, nearly all of them similarly masked. And she considered what they might say if they saw her, suddenly, remove hers. Would someone tell her to put it back on? “That’s embarrassing. I’m not a flop, ”she said. The mask stayed on.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom may have removed the state’s indoor mask mandate for vaccinated people, but a pink-clad toddler in a grocery cart wielded a higher authority. “She can not be vaccinated,” said Rio’s mom, Jen Woo, 37, as she shopped for strawberries and kale. That means Woo’s and Rio’s masks stay on, no matter what the mask rules are. Until vaccinations are approved for children under 5, Woo said, “I do not think it’s going to change.”

Michael Cabanatuan, Ryce Stoughenborough, Annie Vainshtein and Nanette Asimov are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com, ryce.stoughenborough@sfchronicle.com, avainshtein@sfchronicle.com, nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @CTuan, @RStoughts, @AnnieVain, @NanetteAsimov