Boyce: No Cobb mask mandate, asks for voluntary compliance

After several jurisdictions in Georgia—including the City of Atlanta—issued face mask mandates this week, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said Friday he won’t be doing that. Mike Boyce, Cobb Commission Chairman

In his weekly newsletter, Boyce said while “there are those who support imposing a county mandate on face coverings,” Gov. Brian Kemp’s executive order on June 30 states that cities and counties cannot take public health actions “that are more or less restrictive” than the state.

Boyce also said that while other elected officials are imposing mask requirements in response to rising COVID-19 cases in Georgia, “I cannot support this kind of governance. Moreover, while such a mandate looks great on paper, it puts an unsustainable burden on public safety personnel. They would be the ones responsible for enforcing this behavior on more than 760,000 people in the County. This expectation is unreasonable.”

Boyce said he’s making a “nice ask to wear a mask” by encouraging citizens to wear a face covering whenever possible “as a matter of personal and public health.”

Last week, Gov. Kemp went on a statewide tour encouraging mask use, but said he wouldn’t be making it mandatory, even though he warned rising COVID cases could affect the college football season. Kemp also said on Thursday that local mandates are not enforceable.

Other cities that have issued mask mandates include Athens-Clarke County, Savannah and Brookhaven.

Georgia’s COVID-19 cases have spiked in recent weeks, to more than 106,000 in all. On Thursday, 2,837 more confirmed cases were reported, and for the past week the test positivity rate in Georgia is nearly 13 percent.

UPDATED:

On Friday the Georgia Department of Public Health reported a one-day record of 4,484 new reported COVID-19 cases and 35 additional deaths statewide.

Cobb, which issued a public health alert last week, has seen its cases go up from around 5,000 then to 6,369 as of Thursday.

By Friday, Cobb’s case totals had grown by 339 to 6,708. The single-day high for Cobb is 556 new cases on Monday, July 6, likely reflecting a reporting lag due to the Independence Day holiday weekend.

Georgia has 2,965 deaths, although the seven-day average for fatalities is the lowest it’s been since March. A total of 250 deaths have been in Cobb County, two more than Thursday, and second in Georgia to 321 deaths in Fulton County.

ORIGINAL REPORT CONTINUES:

Boyce said voluntary mask-wearing to help slow the spread of virus “is a learned behavior that is better achieved by cooperative engagement rather than legislative fiat. I believe our efforts will ultimately achieve the desired outcome of normalizing the wearing of face coverings. This health precaution is one that is reinforced by a sense of personal accountability and respect for the health of others.”