As business owners in Leon County wrestle with the impact of the county-wide mask mandate, leaders in Valdosta, Georgia recently passed a mask mandate that allows flexibility and relies on individual decisions.
In a 4-3 decision near the end of August, the Valdosta City Council voted in favor of an ordinance requiring face coverings to be worn in public in the city. The mask mandate covers city property and businesses that choose to enforce the mandate.
The mask mandate includes many exceptions. These exceptions include people who are eating or drinking, people who have difficulty putting on or taking off face coverings without assistance, those with religious objections, and those with medical reasons to not wear face coverings.
Private businesses can be exempt from the mandate along with corporations and non-profits. The requirement is that businesses not participating must display a warning on public entrances. The display must state that the location does not consent to the city ordinance and is not enforcing any face-covering requirement.
Enforcement of the city ordinance includes a $50 fine after a warning is given to an individual. Notably, business owners or businesses themselves cannot be fined for customers that fail to comply with the ordinance.
Valdosta qualified for the mask mandate because Lowndes County met the threshold of 100 or more confirmed cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people over the previous 14 days.
The ordinance comes after Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson started a virtual campaign that encouraged all citizens to wear masks in order to fight COVID-19.
Last month, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp passed an executive order that allows municipalities to mandate face-covering if they meet certain metrics.
Under Governor Brian Kemp’s order, the mandate must be removed when Lowndes County no longer meets the threshold.
Valdosta Face Mask Ordinance Provides Flexibility for Business Owners added by Ana Monticelli on
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I’ll go with the medical expert not some Trump idiots!
Wearing a mask to prevent a viral infection, is like wearing a t-shirt to prevent a bullet wound. Wear one if it makes you “feel” better… but don’t expect miracles and stop pretending it matters.
This is no longer about a health crisis (if it ever really was at all), this is about politics. When Andy “Auschwitz” Cuomo can get away with killing thousands of New York’s elderly – and receive praise from the Media PACs for his malfeasance – then you know all you need to know about the Great Covid Scare of 2020.
Masks. Do. Not. Work. Period.
If anything the wearing of masks should be banned, full stop. In addition to not working they are a dehumanizing tool meant to divide us and make us subconsciously think that everyone is a walking virus bomb waiting to kill us. Never mind the fact that you can’t hear people talking through the darn things nor can you see human expressions which is a key factor in communicating with one another. Various forms of masks were used on prisoners and slaves throughout history. This is not a coincidence.
If masks worked then why have numerous places re-instituted lock downs around the world despite having had mask requirements almost from the beginning of this scamdemic? I’m looking at you Hawaii, L.A., Hong Kong and Australia. If masks worked then why have we not used them for influenza every year considering the size of that virus is larger? Why is Sweden such a huge success story having never locked down and never masked up?
The lethality of this virus will go down as the biggest lie in modern human history. Only 6% of deaths in the U.S. have been from Covid-1984 only. The median age of those who have died is 78 and the average life expectancy of an American is 78. Let that sink in. The real revolution should be against those pathetic politicians who allowed this scamdemic to occur and allow it to continue.