NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County supervisors agreed today to hire a COVID officer to make rounds at local businesses to help ensure they’re making customers wear masks and are following other government directives to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Being described as an educational or communications officer, the person would not be authorized to issue tickets to violators of the mask law. He would simply tell business managers of the infractions and report them to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and Natchez Police Department.
“We’re not trying to arrest people. We’re just trying to make sure they’re following the guidelines,” said Adams County Emergency Management Director Brad Bradford.
Natchez and Adams County since July have been under a locally imposed requirement for people to wear face coverings in public places where they congregate close together, but Gov. Tate Reeves has enacted a mandate that’s more expansive and restrictive, Bradford said.
In addition to the masking requirement in Adams and 53 other Mississippi counties, the governor is limiting to 10 the number of people for inside gatherings where they can’t socially distance. The limit is 50 for outside get-togethers.
Bradford is managing the city-county’s response to the public-health crisis.
In asking Adams County supervisors to hire someone to patrol Natchez and Adams County businesses to ensure COVID compliance, Bradford said the person would warn managers and not customers about any infractions. He would keep track of violations and report them to city and county officials.
All five county board members voted to hire the compliance officer, but Supervisor Wes Middleton recited his concerns about cracking down too hard on businesses that don’t enforce the mask-wearing mandate.
“I do not think it’s businesses’ responsibility to police this,” said Middleton, who expressed hopes this will be “an education (effort), and that they act cordially and that nobody gets aggressive.”
Adams County board President Ricky Gray pointed to the airborne virus’ rage in recent weeks as more people globally get infected. “It’s our job to protect our community by any means necessary,” Gray said.
The state Department of Health on Monday reported a spike of 85 Adams County residents newly confirmed in the past week to be infected by the coronavirus. It’s killed 52 local residents since March. Of the 1,532 Adams County residents who’ve been diagnosed in the past nine months, 156 on Monday were classified as “active” COVID cases, according to Bradford. That’s up from 88 two weeks ago.
Bradford said the county COVID compliance officer is to be paid $3,600 for four months on the job, with the county and city boards equally splitting the expenses. No name was mentioned at Monday’s county board meeting of who the officer would be or if someone has actually been selected.
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