No Masks Required
Even when the threat of the Covid-19 virus prevails, the five U.S. states – Texas, Mississippi, Iowa, Montana, and North Dakota, decided to drop their mask mandates soon. The states would join the other 11 states that didn’t make the masks mandate. The 11 states are Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Tennessee.
Gov. Kay Ivey reported that wearing masks would be a matter of personal responsibility and not a government mandate. Thus, people can avoid masks at their risks. Not wearing masks would no longer attract any penalties or fines.
Texas and Mississippi are planning to allow all kinds of businesses to operate at their full potential. This, along with the no mask required mandate, has made the citizens worried.
Ending the mask mandate violates the conditions and rules set forth by the Centre for disease control and protection. The center has issued guidance earlier during the Covid-19 days that all citizens must wear government-approved masks to refrain the virus from entering their systems.
Even though there is a slight decrease in the number of cases reported, the potential for another surge in the cases is relatively high. This, along with the no mask decision, would put the country’s citizens once again in the grave danger posed by the virus.
Upon hearing the official government decision, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky asked the people to continue wearing their masks and follow the covid-19 protocol and rules set forward earlier when the pandemic spread rapidly. It includes the frequent use of sanitizers, gloves in public places and maintaining a safe distance in the crowd.
In Texas, the mask mandate ends in the March of 2021, and the state would be 100% open to the public. It means all the business centers and stores would work in their full glory, and people would get to enjoy life before the pandemic hits. They decided this after the virus-positivity rates declined rapidly for the past two months, and the active cases were under control. Some other states would argue it as a crime to lift this mandate, but let’s be realistic, state crimes are much more severe and should be more serious than the wearing of a mask. Houston state crimes attorney James Alston knows what crimes are serious to the state of Texas and taking away mask-wearing is not one of them.
For the Mississippi, they lifted the mask mandate on the 3rd of March 2021. The decision was made as the virus positivity rates declined and people actively participated in the vaccination campaigns. More than 7% of the state’s total population has already got the vaccines, and the active cases got declined by 10.96% since last month.
Even though the uplifting of the mask mandate is a matter of joy, the pandemic is far from over, and it’s best to undertake certain precautions to ensure that you don’t get affected by it.
Getting vaccinated and following the rules set forth by the Centre for Disease Control and protection would help you maintain your physical health and stay away from the deadly virus. Also, the buzz of the states may tempt you to walk among the crowd, but if you keep on following the covid-19 protocol measures, you have nothing to worry about.