Mayor Reed: Mask wearing mandate may be presented to City Council as early as Tuesday
Melissa BrownMontgomery Mayor Steven Reed on Friday said he may present a mask wearing mandate to the City Council as early as Tuesday, as a rising spike of coronavirus cases in the county continues to be a "cause for alarm and for concern."
Reed said in a press conference Friday he does not want to implement any unnecessary ordinances, but the data indicates the "encouragement approach" may not be working.
"We have not gotten to the end of this yet," Reed said. "Does that mean we freeze everything until we get there? No, it does not. ... What it means is that we have more steps to take. This is not a sprint, it's a marathon. It's up to us to make sure that we do everything we can to reverse these numbers, to reverse this trend that we've seen in Montgomery and some of our surrounding counties."
Reed said the increase in numbers this week, including four deaths since Thursday alone, is a "new highwater mark that means the tide has not yet turned in this pandemic."
"We cannot fast-forward this process," Reed said. "By doing so, we would slow down or reverse the progress we have made. That's why we're moving cautiously, why we're moving very deliberately."
Montgomery County entered May with 355 coronavirus cases. By Friday, May 29, 1,541 cases were reported.
Alabama Department of Public Health State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said the hot spot in Montgomery County cannot be traced back to a singular outbreak. This likely means it's related to general community transmission, rather than the focused outbreaks in other counties tied to individual businesses or health care facilities like a nursing home.
"We have people who are getting infected just going about their everyday lives." Harris said.
Harris said public health guidelines including mask wearing and social distancing are more important than ever as more people are out and about. Harris said a third of Alabama's population is at high risk of serious complications, either due to their age or pre-existing conditions.
"If you won't follow these guidelines for yourself, do it for your family, your neighbors, the people you go to church with, the people you work with," Harris said. "We've all got to take care of each other."
In a virtual town hall on Friday afternoon, Reed said the state took a "big risk" in re-opening to the extent it did, though he said the city wants businesses and the economy back "full throttle" as much as anyone.
As Montgomery County coronavirus cases continue a weeks-long sustained climb, city leadership this week asked Gov. Kay Ivey to consider implementing a new, localized “shelter in place” order if trends continue unabated.
In a letter responding to Reed, Ivey said she shares Reed's concerns but urged him to take action via local ordinances
Reed told the Montgomery Advertiser on Friday before the news conference he was considering “various options” from a city standpoint to slow the spread, including “re-evaluating mandating masks in this community” as well as possibly extending closures of city facilities.
"Our cases have not plateaued. We're not out of the crisis. We're still in the middle of it," said Reed on Friday. "Even though we all want to get back to where we were prior to this pandemic, we can't force that. The more we try to force it, the longer we're going to stay in it. We want businesses back full throttle more than anyone. But we can't force that at the expense of our long-term progress in this community."
More:Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed gives coronavirus update
As of Friday, at least 127 people were hospitalized in Montgomery County's Baptist East, Baptist South and Jackson hospitals. An additional 11 patients were hospitalized at Baptist’s Prattville location.
Diagnosed coronavirus cases in Montgomery County have more than quadrupled since May 1, with 1,541 cases as of Friday morning. At least 38 people have died. Severe coronavirus cases increased quickly as well, with a significant number of patients requiring ICU care and mechanical ventilation. Ventilator use across the Baptist system was at 67% on May 28, which includes non-coronavirus patients as well.
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In recent weeks, Montgomery has emerged as a fast growing hotspot in the state. According to the data analyst Bama Tracker, Montgomery's 7-day average of new cases, which Bama Tracker has calculated as nearly 70, nearly doubles the average in the next highest counties.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Melissa Brown at 334-240-0132 or mabrown@gannett.com.