A growing number of red state governors are finally embracing mask mandates as COVID-19 spreads uncontrolled across the entire country.
The scientific community reached the consensus long ago that wearing masks can save lives and dramatically decrease the spread of the coronavirus.
President Trump, however, helped to turn mask-wearing into a political statement, and many Republican governors have joined him in resisting calls to mandate their use. Continue reading.
A growing number of Republican governors, including some who had written off mask mandates as unenforceable or unacceptable to freedom-loving Americans, are now requiring people to cover their faces in public — a response to escalating coronavirus outbreaks overwhelming hospitals across the country.
After eight months of preaching personal responsibility in place of mandates, these governors have brought their states in line with much of the world by instituting the simple requirement backed by science but, in the United States, shot through with politics.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who once dismissed mask mandates as “feel good” measures, issued a limited order this week, as her state topped 2,000 coronavirus deaths. The state’s senior U.S. senator, 87-year-old Charles E. Grassley, said Tuesday he tested positive for the virus but reported “feeling good.” And a bipartisan group of Midwestern governors, in a joint video address, stressed that widespread distribution of a vaccine was a long way off and advised their constituents that returning to normal sometime next year first required surviving the holidays. Continue reading.
Officials at the University of Minnesota as well as the cities of Edina and Rochester on Monday announced new requirements on wearing face masks in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
The Edina City Council decided to move forward with a policy requiring face masks in all city facilities and in any indoor public place where proper social distancing is difficult.
“While I personally don’t like the idea of a mandate, I think this is something we should do,” Mayor Jim Hovland said at the meeting. Continue reading.
City councils in Edina, Rochester and Mankato are set to decide Monday whether to require people to wear face masks in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
The Edina and Mankato city councils will each hold a special meeting on Monday to discuss citywide mask ordinances. Edina is considering a “possible citywide masking policy,” while Mankato will weigh in on creating an ordinance to require masks or launching a campaign to encourage people to wear face coverings in indoor public spaces.
Rochester’s council will vote on Mayor Kim Norton’s amendment to the existing emergency declaration, which would require people to wear a face covering while in city facilities. Continue reading.
