By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph city officials encourage you to wear a mask when out in public, but the city has yet to make masks mandatory.
Mayor Bill McMurray says he’s leery of taking that step, hoping St. Joseph residents will see the wisdom of wearing masks to contain the spread of COVID-19.
“When you go to a grocery store or when you otherwise are out in public at another retail establishment, just wear the mask,” Murray says during a call to the KFEQ Hotline. “It will protect others. And recent guidelines from the CDC say it might even protect you.”
St. Joseph City Council members will meet Thursday afternoon to discuss whether to issue an order to require residents wear masks while in public. Kansas City and Jackson County have decided to make masks mandatory as has the state of Kansas.
McMurray isn’t sure requiring masks is the right step.
“We really want you to wear them so that you can protect everyone and yourself and, most of all, so we can keep these numbers down,” Murray says. “We don’t want to become another community where we have a huge spike in numbers and then we have to adopt draconian measures again. I don’t want to go down that road.”
Buchanan County now reports 869 cases of COVID-19 since counting began.
Mosaic Life Care has tested 11,801 area residents with 530 testing positive for the coronavirus. Mosaic reports 18 people are being treated for COVID-19 at the St. Joseph hospital. Mosaic is awaiting results from 126 tests.
Living Community of St. Joseph reports one resident and one employee tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday. Living Community officials now report a total of 22 residents and 13 employees have tested positive.
St. Joseph health officials do want residents to wear masks in public as they attempt to keep COVID-19 from spreading.
St. Joseph Health Department spokeswoman Stephanie Malita says wearing a mask during this coronavirus pandemic only makes sense.
“Wearing a mask is going to protect you to some degree and the people around you to an even greater degree,” Malita tells St. Joseph Post. “Washing your hands, keeping that six-foot distance; all these are things that we can do to protect ourselves.”
Malita says she understands some residents don’t want to wear masks at all. She says the city isn’t attempting to limit anyone’s freedom, just limit the spread of COVID-19.