By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph no longer has a city mask mandate after the city council voted to end the mandate and the mayor complied and lifted the emergency declaration.
The action came despite the pleas of Mosaic Life Care.
Mosaic Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Davin Turner, says he understands the council’s decision.
“Certainly, we support the idea of wearing a mask,” Turner tells reporters. “We also recognize how fatigued the population is. I would say, as an organization, we support the idea of a little slower transition and caution. We also know that the city council has a hard job and they are listening to the general populace as to what they know and the fatigue.”
The emergency declaration which required masks be worn in the city was set to expire on April 15th. The city council voted to lift it earlier. Mayor Bill McMurray ended the mandate, even though the city council vote fell short of the total needed to force him to do so.
Turner says Mosaic will continue to require visitors wear masks.
He says the evidence that masks work can be seen in the low number of flu cases this year.
Turner says, so far, the city hasn’t suffered any ill effects.
“We’re not seeing the spikes that we anticipated, really, after January 1 here locally,” Turner says.
St. Joseph health officials reported only six new cases of COVID-19 in Buchanan County on Tuesday. Mosaic Life Care reported only three coronavirus patients hospitalized in its system, all being treated at the St. Joseph hospital.
Though the city-wide mask mandate has been lifted, many businesses still require patrons to wear masks.