SALINAS — The Monterey County Board of Supervisors delayed for a week adopting an indoor mask requirement so it can add hospitality industry language that eases back on the original ordinance initially passed last week.
After fielding more than a dozen calls Tuesday from residents both for and against a mask mandate, the Board on a split vote approved an ordinance that requires masks to be worn indoors when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control ranks the county as having “high” or “substantial” infection rates of COVID-19.
But because there were modifications, it will need to come back in a week for a final vote.
For the week of Sept. 14-20, the CDC ranked Monterey County as having a “high” infection rate, predominantly because of the virulence of the delta variant of the virus that is nearly twice as contagious as prior variants. There were 32 hospitalizations for COVID-19 during that week, according to CDC data.
The original ordinance that got a green light last week provided an exemption to the mandate only if all people present in a room showed proof of vaccination. But following lobbying by the hospitality industry, the Board changed the language so that unvaccinated people are allowed to gather in meeting rooms along with vaccinated people as long as they wear face coverings.
Supervisors further modified the ordinance so that local businesses or venues with indoor facilities must enforce the requirement for their personnel but they don’t have to enforce the mandate on customers and the public.
Supervisors Luis Alejo, Wendy Root-Askew and Mary Adams voted for the mask mandate, while Supervisors John Phillips and Chris Lopez voted against any mandate.
At times anti-mask callers increased their vitriol to the point where they needed to be warned by Board Chairwoman Root-Askew to ease back on threats, such as one caller who said she would physically push past any store employee who required she wear a mask.
Another caller who claimed she was a “freedom fighter” said children are killing themselves because they are forced to wear masks. While teen suicides have increased during the pandemic, top university psychiatrists say it is because of isolation and anxiety, not mask-wearing.
One caller supporting the mask mandate asked whether it was OK to knowingly pass along HIV to protect “personal freedoms.”
Alejo said he wasn’t happy about the modifications since they will delay final vote by another week. Saying the modifications “weakened” the ordinance, he was hesitant at first to support any changes. He also voiced his disappointment that the mandate has had to come from the Board of Supervisors instead of Monterey County Health Officer Dr. Edward Moreno.
“It’s unfortunate that the health officer is unwilling to issue a mask order like other areas in the Bay Area,” Alejo said.
Phillips and Lopez said they voted against the mandate in part because it wasn’t coming from Moreno. Root-Askew disagreed.
“This is not usurping responsibility of the health department,” she said. “We need to recognize the pain that is going on in our communities from this virus.”
