Even as Gov. Tate Reeves reimposed a mask mandate Monday on nine Mississippi counties, he tried to argue that theres no correlation between his earlier lifting of a statewide mandate and the recent upward trend in COVID-19 cases.
Reeves said hes looked at the numbers and mask policies in neighboring states and they dont support the connection.
Heres the numbers we see. In the 2½ weeks since the mask requirement expired on Sept. 30, documented cases of the virus in Mississippi have gone from averaging 517 per day to 767, a nearly 50 percent increase. If thats a coincidence, its an odd one.
It’s apparent that we have take the COVID-19 virus seriously. We have to continue to fight the good fight. That means we have to continue to have a mask mandate in place.
If we keep being wishy-washy on the mask mandate, no one will take it seriously. Just because the numbers improve doesn’t mean we should let our guard down. In fact, we need to keep up what we’re doing.
Mask wearing needs to be second nature at this point regardless of what the governor might say. Let’s stay healthy by continuing to practice the safety measures of wearing a mask.
