3 local counties join mask mandate
As Gov. Mike Dewine defended his decision not to impose a statewide mask order, central Ohio’s Delaware, Licking and Union counties were designated Thursday as “red” cornovarusswept counties and placed under a mandatory mask order.
With Franklin, Pickaway and Fairfield counties continuing as “Level 3” areas, residents of all counties surrounding Columbus, with the exception of Madison, now must wear facial coverings in public.
The governor said 60% of Ohio’s population now lives in a red county, based on the state’s rating system, with residents of the newest such counties required to don masks beginning at 6 p.m. Friday,
Speaking a day after warning that Ohio is in peril from the spike in virus cases, Dewine said he’s willing to order a statewide mask order if Ohioans don’t respond to his plea.
“I will do what I have to do to protect the people of Ohio,” he responded when asked what the “or else” was in his “wear masks or else” message. “I hesitated once; I’m not going to hesitate again.”
But he also expressed hope that Ohioans will voluntarily comply.
“I’m giving them a few more days. We’re going to give it a little while. I will not rule it out (a statewide order) in the future.”
Residents of red counties, which previously encompassed Ohio’s three largest cities in Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland, are required to wear facial coverings in public until their areas drop to a lower rating. Residents of such
Level 3 counties also are asked to limit their activities as much as possible.
With Thursday’s addition of eight counties — Athens, Allen, Lucas, Richland and Scioto, in addition to the three central Ohio counties — 19 counties now are covered by red-alert flags. Athens, home to Ohio University, was flagged as nearing the highest level, Level 4 or “purple” designation, with Dewine expressing concern about the scheduled arrival of students on that campus in coming weeks.
That didn't stop local governments from continuing to enact their own mandates, so Wednesday, Kemp made that prohibition explicit.
Although national health officials have called on people to use masks, President Donald Trump's administration has not issued any nationwide guidance. Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia now require masks.
Local Democratic officials blew up at Kemp's prohibition. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, the first to defy Kemp by ordering masks on July 1, took to Twitter on Wednesday night to lambaste the governor.
“It is officially official. Governor Kemp does not give a damn about us," Johnson wrote. "Every man and woman for himself/herself. Ignore the science and survive the best you can.”
But some business groups in Georgia are supporting Kemp. Georgia Restaurant Association Executive Director Kelly Bremer said Thursday that Kemp has done a “remarkable job" in leading Georgia. She said a statewide mandate isn't appropriate considering Georgia's size and diversity. But she also said local rules would be confusing and businesses should make their own decisions about requiring customers to wear masks.
“For businesses to grapple with 535 different municipal ordinances and 159 different county ordinances is madness," Bremer said.
Kemp's stance leaves him standing virtually alone. In the South, Republican governors in Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida have resisted calls for a statewide mask mandate but allowed local jurisdictions to implement them. Republican governors in Alabama, Arkansas and Texas and Democrats in Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina have issued statewide mask requirements.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson issued his order, which takes effect Monday, on Thursday amid growing support for mask requirements from business and health leaders and a day after Bentonville-based Walmart said it would require customers to wear masks in all of its U.S. stores.
Arkansas' coronavirus cases have dramatically risen since May, when the state began allowing businesses that had closed because of the pandemic to reopen. Arkansas was one of a handful of states that did not issue a broader stay-at-home order.
Meanwhile, Florida reached another ominous record with 156 virus deaths reported Thursday as the state continued to experience a swift rise in cases. The state Department of Health reported 13,965 new cases, bringing the total to nearly 316,000.
Also Thursday, the Boy Scouts of America announced it is postponing next year’s National Jamboree in West Virginia, citing concerns about the pandemic. The increasing number of cases and the pandemic’s persistence and unpredictability made it impossible for the Boy Scouts to comply with its “Be Prepared” motto, the organization said.
In global pandemic developments, restaurants, pubs and clubs are emerging as front lines in efforts to prevent the re-emergence of the coronavirus.
With Europe’s summer vacation season kicking into high gear for millions weary of months of lockdown, scenes of drunken British and German tourists on Spain’s Mallorca island ignoring social-distancing rules and reports of American visitors flouting quarantine measures in Ireland raised fears of a resurgence of infections in countries that have battled for months to flatten the COVID-19 curve.
Germany's foreign minister condemned the rowdy tourists for imperiling hard-won gains.
“We just recently managed to open the borders again in Europe. We cannot risk this by reckless behavior,” Heiko Maas told Funke Media Group. “Otherwise, new measures will be inevitable.”
But another European tourism hot spot, Greece, lifted a ban on flights from Britain on July 15 and on Thursday welcomed the first arrivals with random testing at Athens airport.
In France, which has been seeing new outbreaks, Prime Minister Jean Castex said masks would be mandatory in closed public places as of next week — sooner than Aug. 1 as previously announced.
India's record daily increase of nearly 32,700 cases pushed its total close to 1 million and led authorities to reimpose a three-day lockdown and night curfew in the popular western beach state of Goa, two weeks after it was reopened to tourists.
Israel also registered a new daily record of confirmed cases, and a new nationwide lockdown appeared imminent.
And Brazil, which hit at least 75,000 confirmed deaths Wednesday, was poised to report 2 million confirmed cases Thursday evening. The country has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.
Showing that there can be a way forward, China became the first economy to resume economic growth since the pandemic began in its central city of Wuhan. It reported an unexpectedly strong 3.2% expansion in the latest quarter after lockdowns were lifted and factories and stores reopened.
More than than 13.5 million people have been infected worldwide and over 580,000 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.