Billy Woods , the sheriff of central Florida ’s Marion County , banned masks for all deputies and visitors to the sheriff ’s office take off Tuesday , according to a fresh account from theOcala Star Banner — a foreign decision to make in the eye of a pandemic that ’s still wildly out of mastery .
Sheriff Woods has instructed stave not to wear masks while on duty and said that any public visitors to the sheriff ’s office , which currently engage about 900 the great unwashed , should be told that masquerade are banned . Anyone who does n’t want to remove their mask will be recount to go forth , grant to a memo written by Woods and obtained by theOcala Star Banner .
“ Effective immediately , any somebody walk in to any one of our lobbies ( which includes the main business office and all district offices ) that is tire a mask will be asked to remove it , ” Woods wrote .
Cars line up for coronavirus testing site at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens near Miami, on 19 January 2025.Photo: Chandan Khanna (Getty Images)
Masks are a vital public wellness tool to help slow the spread of coronavirus , according to the CDC , and the sheriff ’s masque ban comes as Florida broke a new disk for daily deaths from covid-19 . The Sunshine State tape 277 new deaths on Tuesday , with 13 of those dying in Marion County . The U.S. as a whole report 1,339 young deaths yesterday .
wood cited anti - police sentiment as one understanding for the raw banning , powerfully hinting that someone might move into the sheriff ’s office for villainous purposes and be unidentifiable with a mask .
Woods write , “ in light of the current events when it comes to the sentiment and/or hate toward law enforcement in our country today , this is being done to ensure there is unmortgaged communicating and for recognition purposes of any individual walking into a lobby . ”
Florida has seen a spectacular ascent in coronavirus cases over the past few months , with tike being particularly hard hit . The number of Florida baby under 17 who ’ve tested plus for covid-19 rose from 16,797 kids on July 9 to 39,735 on August 9 , concord to a recent report fromCNN . Overall , Florida has discover more than 543,000 pillowcase and 8,552 deaths .
Masks were pretty controversial in the U.S. medical community during the other days of the pandemic , but health experts in Asia immediately recognized that grimace coverings could play an important part in terminate the spread of the disease . It ’s now wide accepted in the U.S. that mask are a public goodness and should be wide adopted to help contained covid-19 , though Republicans tend to be the most skeptical of masks , according toseveral polls . President Donald Trump has also been a mask skeptic , though late pull a 180 and call masquerade wearing “ patriotic . ”
Florida presently has a positivity examination rate of 17.3 % , accord to the Johns Hopkins Universitycoronavirus tracker , a numeral that indicates the pandemic is still raging out of ascendancy in the state . New York ’s positivity charge per unit is currently under 1 % , which mean that virus is still present , but not nearly as prevailing as billet like Mississippi ( 20.5 % ) and Texas ( 20.4 % ) .
Anti - mask sentiment in Florida looks like high , relative to many other parts of the nation . Recently , an anti - mask protest in central Florida made newspaper headline for being anabsurd showing of stupidity . Ocala , the largest city in Marion County , legislate a compulsory masque ordination last week through its metropolis council , but the mayor , Kent Guinn , veto the new ordering on Monday , according to local ABC TV affiliateWCJB .
Guinn insist that his constituents do n’t need a mask regulation for local businesses , even one that just submit businesses should make a “ reasonable feat ” to get customers to wear out face coverings .
“ Most want me to interdict it . belike 99 summation percentage , ” Guinn say WCJB last week .
Marion County function for Donald Trumpin 2016 , with 61.7 % voting for the current Chief Executive , and 35.5 % vote for Hillary Clinton . So while it ’s unlikely that “ 99 % ” of Guinn ’s constituents oppose masquerade party , it ’s not concentrated to believe that a bulk might believe the conspiracy theories that masks are a secret plot by theworld ’s lounge lizard peopleto make you breathe poison .
ActivismCOVID-19FloridaMasks
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