Polk County officials are up in arms as pleas to Gov. Kim Reynolds to mandate masks have gone unheard as COVID-19 cases continue to rise. | Pixabay
Polk County officials are up in arms as pleas to Gov. Kim Reynolds to mandate masks have gone unheard as COVID-19 cases continue to rise. | Pixabay
As COVID-19 cases continue to surge in Polk County, leaders have laid the blame at the feet of Gov. Kim Reynolds for failure to enact preventive measures.
KCCI reported the county Board of Supervisors sent a letter to the governor, encouraging a statewide mask mandate while requesting permission to do so at the local level. The letter comes amid record increases of coronavirus cases. The White House Task Force has also weighed in on the matter, encouraging the state to mandate masks.
Reynolds has held to the opinion local governments and the state do not have the authority to mandate masks.
That being said, the county has stopped short of issuing an order of its own unlike Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie, who did so in a public health declaration in late August, KCCI reported. He said his goal is to drop his positivity rate to below 5% and the decision was driven by the positivity rate in Polk County.
Alerts Sign-up