CLARKE COUNTY, Ga. — The mayor of Athens says the city will reinstitute a mask mandate beginning Tuesday.
Athens Mayor Kelly Girtz was on WGAU radio Monday morning where he cited the rise in COVID-19 cases in the county.
Girtz said that when positive tests for COVID 19 rise above 100 over a seven-day period, masks will be required in indoor spaces in Athens.
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“For those businesses that do not wish to participate in the mandate, as was the case before, they can put signs in their windows,” Girtz said.
Girtz said there will be a renewed push to increase coronavirus vaccination rates in Athens.
The Georgia Department of Public Health says the two-week total of positive tests for COVID in Athens is up to 231, with a 39 percent rate of fully vaccinated residents in Athens. That mirrors the state percentage of 40 percent. Oconee County’s fully vaccinated rate is now just north of fifty percent.
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The city of Atlanta issued a mask mandate in July as the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to spread across the city.
The city made the decision after a call with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where the CDC recommended that some vaccinated people resume wearing masks indoors amid a recent spike seen in COVID-19 cases nationwide.
This mandate comes just two days after the mayor of Savannah issued a similar mandate for that city.
“As much as we want to put all of this behind us and put COVID-19 in our rear-view mirror, covid has not gone away and now we have a variant that’s even more transmissible,” Mayor Van Johnson said.
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Information from WGAU Radio was used in this report.
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