The Petersburg Borough Assembly has voted to extend an emergency ordinance requiring masking in indoor public buildings. The Petersburg hospital reported 230 COVID-19 cases in November — infecting more than 7% of the community’s population.
An emergency face mask ordinance adopted Nov. 5 was set to expire Dec. 6. The assembly voted 6-1 on Dec. 6 to extend the masking requirement to Jan. 3.
The ordinance requires masking in public and communal spaces, other than private residences.
Phil Hofstetter, chief executive officer of the Petersburg Medical Center, presented to the assembly on Dec. 6, explaining that the facility has seen increased severity in the illness of patients.
“It’s very difficult to manage the situation and also do day-to-day operations, so it’s a significant burden on our staff,” Hofstetter said. “I really can’t articulate how hard it is and the expenditures from a hospital standpoint are really high to manage a COVID situation.”
He encouraged the assembly to think longer term on how to mitigate COVID outbreaks and maintain operations and the economy.
Dr. Mark Tuccillo, borough public health officer, told the assembly, “We are seeing a new wave, adding, “whether the Omicron is going to make a big difference, I don't know.”
He continued, “In the big scheme of things it really doesn’t matter because if we don’t do the things that we know work, the rest of it really is superficial, so if we don’t have immunization rates that go up, if we don’t have mask wearing, and physical distancing practiced, we are going to continue to see intrinsic spread.”
The COVID case count has declined since November’s record, with just six new infections reported in Petersburg in the first 10 days of December.
Assembly Member Chelsea Tremblay said the decline is a good thing, but warned that Petersburg is now in the same spot it was in before the spike. “I would like to have a local government that can both plow roads and pick up garbage at the same time, so I believe that keeping smart public health measures in place right now is incredibly important,” Tremblay said.
Mayor Mark Jensen opposed extending the masking ordinance. He said he is not against masking, but could not support mandating masking and believes that people who are going to wear masks will wear them without a mandate. The mayor was the only vote against extending the ordinance.
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