City council to vote on masking ordinance
State reported 3,338 new COVID-19 cases Friday
The Oklahoma City Council will vote Tuesday on reinstating the mask ordinance first adopted more than a year ago to battle COVID-19, though passage appeared unlikely.
The measure would require masks to be worn, indoors, in many public places. It is to be twinned with a resolution aimed a providing incentives to encourage vaccination.
Children’s health and safety is at stake, Ward 2 Councilman James Cooper said Friday.
“We as adults are in a position to save their lives,” Cooper said.
Cooper said Oklahoma City-County Health Department leaders would be on hand Tuesday at City Hall to discuss the latest data on the surging pandemic.
The state reported 3,338 new cases Friday.
Cooper cited polling showing most Americans support mask mandates.
And he encouraged the vaccine-hesitant and those thinking one shot is enough to complete their vaccinations: “We need them right now to step up.”
Public health and economic health are dependent upon checking further spread of the coronavirus, and leadership of elected officials is critical, Cooper said.
The councilman said the proposal would be for a temporary ordinance, through Oct. 1.
To take effect immediately, it would require support of seven of the nine council members. The previous ordinance had seven votes, and all seven of those who supported it still serve.
But Ward 8’s Mark Stonecipher said Friday he opposed re-enacting the mandate. Stonecipher sponsored the previous ordinance.
“In Oklahoma City we need to stay focused on vaccinations,” Stonecipher said by text. “We do not need to send a mixed message.”
Oklahoma City vaccination numbers are strong and public officials’ efforts should concentrate on improving those already above-average results, he said.
Ward 4’s Todd Stone also said he was “a no on the mandate. The remedy is the vaccine.”
The two council members who opposed the previous mask ordinance have been replaced but their successors have expressed skepticism and outright opposition to further mask requirements.
The measure appeared late Friday to have no clear path to immediate enactment.
The mask mandate was first enacted on a temporary basis July 17, 2020, and was renewed about every six weeks until it expired April 30.
“Masks have worked throughout the pandemic and are still working,” Health Board Chairman Gary Raskob and Health Department Executive Director Dr. Patrick McGough wrote in a letter to Mayor David Holt after a board meeting in March.
The next day, the council deferred a decision on ending the mask mandate early.
At its meeting, the Health Board discussed early signs of community spread of the delta variant, the cause of the current surge in cases and hospitalizations.
Board members warned then against an early end to the mandate.
The measure as proposed on Tuesday would not require masks in public or private schools. Churches would be exempt as long as social distancing is observed.
Those same exceptions and others were part of the previous ordinance.