MANATEE COUNTY – With a vote of 4-3 Manatee County becomes the first county on the Suncoast to repeal their countywide mask mandate. A week after Gov. Ron DeSantis moves forward with pushing the sunshine state into Phase 3 of reopening the state economy.
“We can mandate mask all day long. But I’m a firm believer that we don’t have the right to mandate to the residents to do or not to do; that is an individual choice,” said commissioner Vanessa Baugh.
County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh says the county has seen a steady decrease in the number of positive cases and COVID -19 deaths as reported daily by the Florida Department of Health. Baugh says since the mask mandate went into effect in late July the counties DOH has reported the documented COVID cases has been below 5% over the last 14 days.
“The governor put us in Phase 3. We’re in it, we’re there. Things are definitely starting to turn around a little bit and get better,” said Baugh. “So we should obviously give the residents…the citizens the right to make the choice.”
The new mask mandate doesn’t force residents in the county to wear masks indoors or outdoors but does encourage the use of masks if social distancing can’t be followed. However, businesses can continue to enforce patrons wear masks in their establishment.
“We have documentation that our numbers went drastically down, so masks work. And until we get a vaccine as you heard form the CDC director that is about the only thing that we can do. It’s all about infection control,” said commissioner Carol Whitmore.
Commissioner Carol Whitmore, a registered nurse says, though the states COVID-19 Dashboard indicates – since March 2nd Manatee County has seen a decrease of positive cases in the last 30 days by 10.80 % to 10.76%. But she fears people will let their guard down which will result in a surge of new cases.
“There was an uptake these last few days, and I’ve talked to some physicians in Manatee County,” she said. “And they said we’ll probably see something in the next week or so another spike. They’re afraid that if everyone lets their guard down we are going to see that.”
Whitmore and Baugh both say commissioners and health officials will continue to monitor the number of cases in the county and will reintroduce a new mask mandate if number go up.
Both commissioners hope residents can continue to follow CDC guidelines in order to keep the number of cases low in one of the former epicenters on the Suncoast for the virus.
Commissioners are asking tourists that plan to travel down to Florida to check the local mask mandates before traveling.