A second straight weekend of large crowds in downtown Annapolis has frustrated city and county officials who have sought to limit such gatherings and promote physical distancing in an effort to avoid a second wave of coronavirus infections.
County Health Officer Nilesh Kalyanaraman said members of his staff were at City Dock over the weekend as part of an education effort by the city. He said people ignoring social distancing and mask recommendations fit in with his worries that a resurgence of the virus is coming.
“These are exactly the things that concern me,” he said. He added, however, that health department officials do not have enforcement powers.
The scenes around City Dock of people not wearing masks, some coming to and from boats with more than 10 people, and others drinking alcohol in public were troubling, Mayor Gavin Buckley said Tuesday. As a result, Buckley said he will recommend placing six-foot spacing circles on the bulkhead to remind people to stand or sit apart from each other.
“People have been pent up for a long time,” Buckley said. “But it does frustrate me to no end when I look around and I see people not wearing masks.”
The city deployed members of the Annapolis Community Emergency Response Team who walked around downtown handing out masks and encouraging people to keep six feet apart.
The city is limited in its ability to enforce wearing masks outside, Buckley said, a challenge most waterfront towns like Annapolis are facing as the weather warms up and people become increasingly eager to leave their homes after spending months inside.
Kalyanaraman warned that the more officials loosen restrictions, the more cases will increase.
“The principles that we’ve put in place, the physical distancing, the face masks, the hygiene, those are more important than ever to maintain the gains that we have,” he said. “Obviously, when we start to have more people coming together we’re going to see an increase in cases. But to the extent that we maintain those other practices, we will be in a better position to sustain our recovery.”
County Executive Steuart Pittman said he has sensed a shift in public sentiment— particularly on social media — since the early days of the pandemic in early March, one that has morphed from unity around stopping the spread of the virus to that of growing frustrating among those who want to go back to normal.
Pittman said he will continue to remind people that a second wave of the virus is likely to be more devastating than the first as has been the case in past pandemics.
“While I know that the majority of our residents support continuing to work to stop the spread of this virus and are willing to make sacrifices to do that, I believe there’s a growing number of people that are frustrated,” he said. “To the extent that we flatten the curve, there will be a growing impatience with the sacrifices that we make to do so. And we’re at that point.”
A social media campaign to promote physical distancing and emphasize the use of masks both when entering retail stores and while outside will continue this week, Buckley said.
The large crowds have also led some to flout the city’s open container laws. Annapolis police dished out 14 verbal warnings for open alcohol containers over the weekend in the downtown area, where the department posted eight officers being paid overtime, said Lt. Kristoffer Becker, the department’s COVID-19 representative. Nobody was arrested or issued a citation.
“Crowds were large all weekend…” Becker said. “We have a policy that was distributed to officers that they would make every effort to disperse with diplomacy groups greater than 10 citywide.”
Becker said officers responded to three calls for potential violations of Hogan’s executive orders to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Police found no such violation on one call and gave warnings on two others.
Annapolis police have responded to 154 calls for potential executive order violations since March 23, when the department first began tracking such calls, according to Becker. Officers found no violation occurred on about 70% of the calls and issued warnings 40 times.
Nobody has been arrested for violating the governor’s orders, a reflection of Chief Ed Jackson’s diplomacy first approach to enforcing restrictions related to the coronavirus crisis. Annapolis police enforcement statistics mirror those of the county.
Over roughly the same period, county police officers have responded to 899 calls for potential executive order violations. Spokeswoman Sgt. Jacklyn Davis said officers found no issue on 640 of the calls and issued warnings on 251 of them. Nobody has been charged in the county exclusively for violating the executive order.
When the city eventually moves to phase two of Hogan’s three-step reopening plan, restaurants will have more space to allow customers to drink without violating city open container laws, Buckley said.
“People are out of the house because they want to be out of the house. They’re purchasing food and drink, and then they’ve got nowhere to go,” he said.
Capital reporter Alex Mann contributed to this story.
