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Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds addresses Iowa residents during her weekly press conference on Thursday, February 4, 2021, in Johnston, Iowa, where she provided updates on COVID-19’s vaccination efforts.
(Bryon Houlgrave / The Des Moines Register via AP)
Iowa residents no longer need to wear masks in public buildings on Sunday morning, according to Governor Kim Reynolds’ latest health proclamation.
The new rules – which reverse the restrictions imposed by Reynolds before Thanksgiving – also lift previous restrictions on the number of people allowed to gather in a space at any given time, along with social distance requirements for businesses like restaurants and gyms.
“It allows us to do business again at a really critical time,” Jessica Dunker, head of the Iowa Restaurant Association, told Des Moines Register on Saturday.
“We are … the day before the Super Bowl, which opens a lot of business for the crowds to come in and watch the big game safely.”
Reynolds, who once rejected mask mandates as a “welfare” measure, changed his mind in November, when COVID-19 cases surfaced in Iowa and elsewhere.
His office did not give an explanation for the governor’s decision to lift these restrictions, according to reports. Iowa reported 804 cases of coronavirus on Friday morning and ranks 46th in the country in vaccine distribution, the Register said.
The new proclamation “strongly encourages Iowa citizens, businesses and organizations to take reasonable public health measures, consistent with the guidance of the Iowa Department of Public Health,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
But at least one prominent public health voice in the state criticized the measure, which was announced days after state officials announced three confirmed cases of the highly contagious British variant of COVID-19.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea, to be honest,” Lina Tucker Reinders, president of the Iowa Public Health Association, told the Register.
“We are not yet out of the pandemic.”