As Covid-19 cases plummet and vaccines are launched across the country, a handful of governors have removed mask mandates across the state, heightening tensions with some city leaders who are maintaining their own restrictions to fight new strains of the coronavirus.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds this month lifted the state’s mask mandate and restrictions on social gatherings, after case counts and hospitalizations have dropped about 80% since the peak of autumn and vaccination programs in nursing homes. senior citizens and health care facilities started.
“We need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to protect the citizens of Iowa, especially the most vulnerable,” the Republican governor said in an interview. “But I also have to balance the economies that support individuals who are trying to sustain a business or sustain their livelihood.”
Des Moines, Dubuque, Iowa City and several other cities have no plans to follow the governor’s lead by withdrawing the facial coverage mandate, as several new strains of Covid-19 have arrived in the state and the vaccine’s launch takes longer than expected.
“I think now is the time to be more diligent than ever,” said Frank Cownie, Democratic mayor of Des Moines, who established his own masking mandate in August, several months before the state.