Mandatory face masks in Montgomery? Not for now, Mayor Reed says

Brad Harper
Montgomery Advertiser

Mayor Steven Reed said this week he is backing away from a plan that would require face masks to be worn at all times within the city. But Reed said he will revisit the issue if long-term COVID-19 case numbers don’t improve here.

“I did want to introduce an ordinance regarding mandating masks tonight at the council meeting,” Reed told the Montgomery City Council on Tuesday. “However, after polling the council and talking to many of you, I understand that the support was not there for mandating masks in this city. I know many of you still believe that we have to take personal responsibility for that, and we’re going to do that.

“… I certainly respect the will of the council and what you’ve chosen to do, and how you’ve chosen to go about doing that. But I want to say that if we haven’t seen any change in the numbers in a couple of weeks, if we’re still holding off on opening up some of our facilities, I’ll be calling you back to see about a temporary mandate.”

The mayor suggested the idea last week, in the midst of a weeks-long sustained climb in the number of new coronavirus cases for the county.

Mayor Steven Reed listens to community leader JaMel brown following a press conference at E.D. Nixon Elementary School in Montgomery, Ala., on Monday, June 1, 2020.

Montgomery City Councilman Glen Pruitt pointed to a decline in new cases over the past three days and urged the easing of some restrictions. The city has been under a 10 p.m. curfew since March, but Pruitt said late-night traffic in some parts of the city “looked like Christmas” on Monday, suggesting that the curfew was ineffective.

Reed said that the attention of law enforcement on Monday night was directed toward protests downtown and elsewhere, and ensuring they remained orderly and peaceful. Hundreds gathered in front of the state Capitol building that night to protest police brutality and the killing of George Floyd. Protests have continued and have remained peaceful, a sharp contrast to the scene in some other cities across the nation.

Councilman Oronde Mitchell said people within his district were concerned that some protesters weren’t wearing masks and were potentially putting the health of Montgomery Police officers at risk during confrontations. Beyond that, Mitchell said he’s gotten calls from doctors here urging people to wear masks in public.

Protesters taunt police officers as they take to Dexter Avenue in front of the State Capitol in Montgomery, Ala., Monday night June 1, 2020.

The number of confirmed cases COVID-19 cases in Montgomery County dropped each day this week from 78, to 48, to 44, to 21, according to data tracking site Bama Tracker. But the county has seen similar short-term dips in the past before cases spiked again days later, and weekly averages were still trending up. Montgomery County was close to passing Jefferson County for the highest number of total confirmed cases in Alabama, despite having a fraction of its total population.

As of Tuesday, 107 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized at Baptist Health facilities in Montgomery and Prattville, and 61 of Baptist’s 92 ventilators were currently in use.

Reed told the council he wants to see improvement in long-term trends so that the city can get back to a sense of normalcy, and wearing a mask is one of the keys to doing that.

“I hope that everyone will do what they need to do in wearing masks,” Reed said. “… We do have to get our economy back going. We do want to get everybody back to where we were prior to (the pandemic). We want to make sure that we’re respectful of our health care system and we’re respectful of one another.”

Mayor Steven Reed speaks with Alabama State Health Officer Scott Harris before a press conference at City Hall in Montgomery, Ala., on Friday, May 29, 2020.

Melissa Brown and Kirsten Fiscus contributed to this story.Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brad Harper at bharper1@gannett.com.