NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County supervisors turned down a proposal today to require people to wear masks in county-owned buildings as COVID continues to infect more people.
The county leaders said ordering people to wear face coverings in public places are an ineffective government attempt to curb the spread of the airborne virus.
“When you mandate someone to do something, they don’t do it anyway,” said county Board President Angela Hutchins.
“It’s a free country, and my choice is not to wear masks. Most of my constituents agree with me,” said Supervisor Kevin Wilson, the lone Republican elected to the five-member Board of Supervisors.
The board in May let a countywide mask mandate expire after being in place for 10 months.
At today’s board meeting, Supervisor Ricky Gray proposed reinstating the mask mandate just for county-owned buildings, but his motion was met with silence and failed as no other supervisor would agree to put it to an actual vote.
However, Hutchins urged people — even those vaccinated — to use their own discretion and choose to wear masks inside public places. “I’m going to ask you to please wear a mask when you’re inside,” she said.
As a more virulent strain of the coronavirus continues to infect more people in recent weeks, federal and state health officials last week began to urge everybody – even those with COVID vaccinations – to return to wearing masks inside public places where people gather. The mask-wearing directive had been eased in May, when the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said people fully vaccinated didn’t need to wear them in most public venues.
However, in areas of the country where most people are not getting vaccinated, COVID-19’s delta variant has surged — causing more people to be sickened and hospitals to be swamped with chronically ill patients.
Adams County in July experienced a jump in new COVID cases. The state Department of Health is reporting about 100 more residents tested positive this past week to be infected with the virus. That’s the largest weekly surge since May. New cases in the weeks of June had fallen to as low as 18 reported for the week ending June 26. That was the lowest weekly number since June 2020.
About 32 percent of Adams County residents have been fully vaccinated, according to the state Department of Health. That’s close to Mississippi’s 34 percent vaccination rate but below the 49 percent nationally.
The Board of Supervisors on Monday did reinstate Adams County’s emergency declaration it previously had in effect because of COVID. This gives county government more power to take certain measures it can’t during normal times.
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