Raleigh gets ready to require masks to stop COVID-19 spread. Will Wake’s towns sign on?
The Raleigh City Council took the next step Tuesday toward requiring people to wear masks to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
The rule, once enacted, will only apply to the city of Raleigh. No timeline for implementation was set.
Wake County’s other mayors “are not in agreement” in requiring a mask in their towns, according to Greg Ford, chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners.
The City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to give the mayor authority to issue a mask requirement in an expanded state of emergency.
Raleigh’s new rule will likely mirror rules already in place in Durham and Orange counties, said Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin. People will not be cited or arrested for not wearing a mask, she said. It will be enforced through education, she said.
There were nearly 3,200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wake County, as of Tuesday afternoon. More than 40 people in the county have died. Raleigh has nearly 2,000 of those confirmed cases, according to the county’s COVID-19 website.
Wake County is one of a handful of counties the White House Coronavirus Task Force is worried about in the state.
Statewide there have been nearly 46,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 1,100 deaths.
County leader ‘strongly encourages’ masks
Wake County believes that masks and face coverings “are strongly encouraged in all circumstances where social distancing is not possible,” Ford said.
But the county will not issue a mask rule for the unincorporated areas it oversees, he said, unless all the other mayors are in agreement.
“Wake’s 15 mayors are currently not in agreement in support of a countywide mask mandate,” Ford explained. “If Wake County were to issue a mask order without the support of all of our mayors, the inconsistent application and enforcement of that order across the county would likely result in a great deal of unnecessary public confusion and enforcement issues.”
Each Wake municipality has authority in its town city limits,”to make decisions which they believe are in the best interest of their fellow residents,” Ford said, adding he would be in favor of the council issuing a mask order.
In a statement, Apex Mayor Jacques Gilbert says he plans on following the governor’s guidelines.
“There is current discussion in Wake County considering the requirement of face coverings in public,” he said in a written statement. “I am closely monitoring this discussion, and my intent is to continue supporting the recommendations regarding masks set by the Governor for our state. As always, I encourage Apex businesses to make decisions in the best interest of their business and customers.”
North Carolina does not require masks or face coverings, but they are encouraged. Gov. Roy Cooper has said requiring masks are “absolutely in discussion.”
“We want people to voluntarily doing this, but we are looking at additional rules to potentially make these mandatory,” he said Monday.
The mask requirement in Raleigh was partly spurred by a viral video showing lines of people outside restaurants in Glenwood South on the outskirts of downtown Raleigh. Baldwin repeated her concerns Tuesday about seeing those images.
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 5:44 PM.
