This story with more information Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020, was updated at 6:44 p.m.
Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger will have a medical cut on Thursday, May 8th. Till renewed the nationwide mask order, which was supported by members of the local medical and professional community.
An order originally issued in July to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which infected more than 8,000 people and killed 78 in Hamilton County, was due to be fulfilled on September 8, but was extended to 30 days.
Asking the county health department to extend the order, Kopping said, “It gives us a chance when people mask up.” “I tell people to bear with us and remember that this will not last a lifetime.”
He added, “We need your support, we need your support so we can get tourism here again.”
Koppinger – along with many local physicians, business owners and community leaders advocating the order – spoke at a news conference Thursday morning.
(Read more: What you need to know about the Hamilton County Mask Mandate during the COVID-19 epidemic)
Representatives of the community, members of Copper’s recently formed advisory task force, echoed the importance of the mask in preventing the spread of the virus and allowing the economy to reopen and benefit businesses prevented from previous shutdowns.
Mitch Patel, owner of a local hotel, said: “The virus is devastating to our industry and to many businesses in our community. The fact is that many businesses simply do no harm to them.” Strive to maintain businesses and jobs. “This current environment is creating stress for many employees in the service industry, but this mask command has also relieved some of that stress, as these employees are also counted on to order customers to wear masks.”
“This mask mandate is not just to save lives, but to save businesses and livelihoods and employment.”
(Read more: Hamilton County Mask Command: Is it working to control the coronavirus?)
Beyond the health and economic effects of the command, wearing masks has affected some innate parts of the community.
Hamilton County School Superintendent Brian Johnson said Thursday that schools have made progress in three phases of reopening this week – starting with a full schedule of individual learning with some sports, but masks and other safety protocols – where Johnson expects most to live. Or all these school years, thank you as part of the command.
With four more weeks of the order, infectious disease specialist Dr. Mark Andersen said the county will focus on the second cycle of the command’s slow-rolling effect.
“It takes about 2-4 or 5 weeks for this type of behavior to change, because people get infected, there is an incubation period of up to 14 days, there may be some time.” Dr. Anderson, doctor of the CHI Memorial. “And really, we saw it a few weeks later. We started to see the number of positive cases go down, and then the number of people in the hospital would be even slower than that, because when people get sick from this, it’s often devastating and They have been sick for a long, long time. “
With that in mind, Coppinger says it follows the same data and Oct. Kto of further renewal of the command. 8 will evaluate it as the expiration approaches.
(Read more: Hamilton County claims first business for disobeying mask order)
While Anderson noted that the seasonal virus does not appear to have any effect on the virus, meaning that there may not be a “cold season” spike, he said that individuals and businesses should see other increases in the county if order and other safety are not taken into account. Can be found. Precautions.
“We don’t just take care of what the virus does when we just talked, especially masks,” he said, referring to the long line of experts emphasizing the importance of masks and social distance. “When people start to open up more, do more stuff, gather more and don’t wear masks, we’ve seen the whole country just explode, we’ve seen that in this community.”
He added, “Now that we’re doing things with this mask command, we’re seeing it go down in this community as well, re-emphasizing the full importance of these steps.”
To encourage compliance, the order carries a possible fine of 50 fines and a jail time of up to 0 days in jail, although cited for violating the ordinance, although the sheriff did not cite anyone related to the order from the outset. While Coppinger said he has personally seen 100% compliance with the mask order in the business he has come into, the county will continue to monitor and enforce the order.
(Read more: Hamilton County Sheriff to turn warning over COVID-19 mask implementation)
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone other than this, and he speaks to parts of our community for doing that,” Koppinger said, adding that there was a recent offensive by the county to the repeated violations of this act. “The purpose of this is not to be punitive, but a mechanism, obviously, and I think it has been reported recently, for those who are completely resistant to it.”
Hamilton County Health Department Administrator Becky Barnes confirmed the department would re-sign the order, noting that the department and the mayor have worked closely on the decision.
For more information on face covering requirements, see the order here.
Contact Sarah Grace Taylor staylor@tie freepress.com or 423-757-6416. Follow her on Twitter _sarahgtaylor.
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