White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said there is no national mandate on wearing masks as it is a matter for states to decide, during an interview with “Fox & Friends” on July 6.
“Well, it’s certainly a state-to-state issue, as we look across the country, obviously the narrative is the COVID cases are rising, but testing is rising exponentially. We’ve now tested almost 10 percent of our country,” Meadows said as states experienced a surge in the cases of infection in the past few weeks as reopenings happen.
On Sunday, Florida surpassed 200,000 CCP virus or COVID-19 cases, and on Saturday it recorded the highest number on a single day, 11,458 cases, surpassing a recorded 11,434 cases in New York in mid-April.
Cases of infection were overall on the rise in 34 states over the past week, with 12 recordings an increase of more than 50 percent, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Three states—Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Vermont—are reporting a decline in cases.
Nearly half of the states have halted their reopening plans amid the surge and a growing number of them have mandated the use of masks and face-coverings while in public.
The states with mandatory use of masks are California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
“And yet when we look at masks and the wearing of masks, that’s done on a location basis, when you can’t have social distancing, but certainly a national mandate is not in order,” said Meadows. “We’re allowing governors and mayors to weigh in on that.”
Some mayors have already passed ordinances requiring strict adherence to wearing masks—in mid-June, the city of Memphis in Tennessee passed an ordinance requiring its people to wear masks inside essential and non-essential businesses including restaurants and bars. The city council made the decision after 450 people were found to be infected with the CCP virus in 48 hours, according to WMC5 Action News.
Around the same time, as the cases of infection surged in Texas, nine mayors in the state wrote an open letter to the residents, urging them to wear masks.
“We’re not here to scare you. We’re not playing games or politics. The virus is here. Infections are rising. Hospital capacity is filling up,” said Mayor of San Antonio Ron Nirenberg while sharing the letter on Twitter.
“We are not asking you to stay home, but we are asking you to mask up and social distance where possible,” said the mayors in the open letter.
Texas mayors are back with another letter, but this time — we’re writing to you.
We’re not here to scare you. We’re not playing games or politics. The virus is here. Infections are rising. Hospital capacity is filling up.
Wear a mask. Remain vigilant. Thank you, San Antonio. pic.twitter.com/lj8iXLo8SK
— Mayor Ron | Wear a mask! (@Ron_Nirenberg) June 19, 2020
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he doesn’t believe making masks mandatory across the country is important, but also said that he is “all for masks” and that he “thinks masks are good.”
A study by a team of researchers in Texas and California that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on June 30 said that wearing a mask is the most effective way to stop person-to-person transmission of the CCP virus or the novel coronavirus.
The study found that wearing masks prevented over 78,000 infections in Italy between April 6 and May 9 and over 66,000 infections in New York City between April 17 and May 9.
“Our analysis reveals that the difference with and without mandated face covering represents the determinant in shaping the pandemic trends in the three epicenters,” said the study that had also analyzed cases in Wuhan.
CNN Newswire contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times