Mayor Corey Woods said in a statement that the city of Tempe will continue to enforce the mask mandate regardless of instructions from the executive branch calling for an exit
Photo by Alex Gould
| State Press Tempe City Hall is pictured on Saturday, March 20, 2021. Tempe City Council met on April 8 to discuss how Tempe will move forward following Governor Doug Ducey’s order on masks. By Anusha Natarajan | 04.09.2021 4:31 pm
The mask mandate in Tempe is still in force, the city’s mayor and city council decided on Thursday. Tempe joins Phoenix, Flagstaff and Tucson to maintain the mandate despite a March 25 order from Governor Doug Ducey to expire counties, cities and towns.
The mandate began on June 18, 2020 and its continuation will enforce Tempes’ right to public health protection during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mayor Corey Woods said in a statement.
Masks are required in all public areas where it is difficult or impossible to maintain social distance, e.g. B. in urban facilities, in local public transport and in all other companies.
The city received legal advice during a meeting on Thursday, which led to the decision to keep the mandate after about two weeks of compliance with the executive order. Woods said at the meeting this week that the informal statement from the Arizona Attorney General’s office allowing Pima County to maintain and enforce his mandate offered hope that Tempe could keep his mandate as well.
“City Manager Andrew Ching will work with city officials and outside agencies such as Arizona State University and the Arizona Department of Health Services to establish science-based, objective thresholds for tempe so that we can have indicators of when we are responsible for our city mask mandate Can finish, “Woods said in a statement.
Woods was not available for additional comments.
The mandate will also provide more clarity for the city’s businesses when they return to normal operations and “economic recovery,” Woods said. Companies that do not fulfill the mandate will only be cited when clarification and warnings can be given.
The university reported a total of 67 active cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, an increase of five from the beginning of the week. On Friday, the Arizona Department of Health reported 1,302 new cases and seven deaths.
“If we continue to work together we will overcome this pandemic and get back to life sooner rather than later,” Woods said in a statement.
Editor Piper Hansen contributed to the coverage of this article.
Reach out to the reporter at [email protected] or follow @ AnushaNat1 on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
Keep supporting student journalism by making a donation to The State Press today.
Comments are closed.