City of Beaufort lets mask mandate expire. Here’s what officials recommend instead
The city of Beaufort’s mandatory mask ordinance, put in place last year to limit the spread of COVID-19, will be allowed to expire at 11:59 p.m. Friday.
It will be replaced by a new ordinance that “strongly encourages” residents to wear masks in buildings that are open to the public and businesses to require masks.
The City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to replace the mandatory measure with the voluntary suggestion.
In allowing the mask requirement to expire, council members rejected the recommendation of the official leading the state’s COVID-19 response. Instead, they favored what they called the common sense of residents to do the right thing.
“I really feel like we can beat this,” Councilman Neil Lipsitz said. “We just need to use common sense.”
Lipsitz said he hopes residents prove him right by choosing to wear masks on their own when they enter buildings and avoiding large crowds that could be “super spreaders.” He strongly encouraged businesses to require masks, but if they don’t, it’s their constitutional right, he said.
‘A significant risk’
Dr. Edward Simmer, a Beaufort resident and director of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, urged the council to keep the mandatory mask ordinance in place until May 31.
“There is still a significant risk of for the transmission of COVID in the city of Beaufort, and masks do reduce the risk, especially indoors,” Simmer said.
Beaufort is the latest local government to wrestle with whether to continue requiring mask wearing as COVID-19 cases and deaths decline — even as public health officials warn that the threat persists.
Beaufort County and the town of Bluffton previously scrapped their mask mandates, and the town of Port Royal’s requirement expires Friday.
City Manager Bill Prokop said the Beaufort ordinance strongly recommends masks inside buildings, but the decision is in the hands of restaurant and retail establishment owners on whether to require them for employees and customers.
The new ordinance giving businesses that flexibility will be in place for 60 days, at which time the City Council will revisit the issue.
The city, Prokop added, will continue to require masks in all city-owned buildings. And he noted that Beaufort Memorial Hospital continues to require masks, which also are mandatory statewide in all court buildings. Just this week, Prokop said, a person was asked to leave a local court because they refused to wear a mask.
What about herd immunity?
When the new ordinance was proposed, Councilman Mitch Mitchell suggested an amendment that would have replaced the words “strongly encourage” with “require.”
“We should ... continue to exercise extreme caution by continuing the current mask ordinance,” Mitchell said.
The city, Mitchell said, should continue to be extremely cautious because experts say a 70% vaccination rate is needed to get herd immunity, and Beaufort hasn’t even achieved 50%.
While it could create logistical challenges for county residents to have jurisdictions with different mask rules, Mitchell argued if the city of Beaufort continued the mandate, it would likely encourage people to wear them in other locations as well.
“If we the city vote to continue this ordinance for masking, I think people will err on the side of being conservative. And if they are not sure they are in the city or not, they will wear the mask,” Mitchell said.
His motion to keep the mandatory requirement in place failed for lack of a second, and Mitchell supported the original motion for “strongly encouraging” masks.
Councilman Philip Cromer said he wanted to see the council pass a resolution, rather than an ordinance, strongly encouraging masks. An ordinance carries the weight of law. But he dropped the idea after Prokop noted that an emergency ordinance makes the city eligible for COVID-19-related funding. A resolution would not.
Simmer, the DHEC director, disputed Cromer’s assertion that herd immunity in the community was likely close to 70% when the number of residents who had received vaccinations is combined with those who had contracted the disease.
In Beaufort, 48% of the residents have had at least one vaccination shot, Simmer said.
Councilman Mike McFee urged residents to be prudent and wear masks when in closed spaces and “be intelligent” and thoughtful about people around them. He’s hopeful that the number of cases will decrease while vaccinations increase. Residents have spoken, he said, and are willing to be responsible about wearing masks.
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 12:00 AM.
