Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams said she doesn’t expect a citywide mask mandate to be imposed in the near future, even with COVID-19 cases rising due to the highly contagious delta variant.
“We couldn’t control it before, and I cannot see us going back to a mask mandate, unless it turns into a countrywide mandated ordinance,” McAdams said.
The City Council approved a mask mandate last July. This April, the council extended the requirement until June, when it was allowed to expire.
McAdams was part of a conference call Thursday with Dr. Thomas Dobbs, state health officer, in which he provided a COVID-19 update and information on the delta variant.
At the end of the conference call, a question-and-answer session was conducted with Dobbs and the other mayors present.
McAdams said one of the questions posed involved city employees being asked to provide proof of vaccination.
Dobbs said that cities could ask employees for that proof, as vaccine records are not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which protects sensitive patient health information.
McAdams said she will not force city employees to provide proof of vaccination or to be vaccinated but would require them to wear masks.
During the conference call, Dobbs said the delta variant strain is three times more contagious than the previous strain and said the only protection against it is mask-wearing and the vaccination.
Dr. Dobbs stressed the importance of getting vaccinated when eligible. He said 97% of all new cases, 89% of hospitalizations and 85% of deaths involve unvaccinated people.
“Please, please take this seriously,” McAdams said.
“Even though nobody likes to be told what they should or shouldn’t do, especially when it comes to their health, this is something that is out there, whether we like it or not,” the mayor said, “and we’ve got to deal with it as a group of people.”
- Contact Drew Richardson at 581-7233 or drichardson@gwcommonwealth.com.
