“The evidence is that we need more people wearing masks in public settings. SPRINGFIELD, Mo. After that update, Councilman Matt Simpson asked if requiring people to wear face masks might be a “proactive” way to protect the city, which has so far avoided the kinds of major outbreaks seen in other parts of the state.“If we have a resurgence of this virus in the city, our options are going to be to do nothing or pull back from the opening, and I think either of those options are not good,” he said. “That’s a fairly easy drive. “We hope that we can get them deployed as early as tomorrow to knock that backlog of cases out,” Goddard said.“They’re conducting an investigation across the country are in order to determine the best uses of capacity within health departments and how to respond to this crisis effectively,” Towns said.Towns said ideally the health department should be able to catch back up and get to their 24-48 hour notification period.
By Charter, the City has eight council members who are each elected for a four-year term on a non-partisan basis, and a Mayor who is elected for a two-year term. Knowing that most of our disease tend to come from those types of trips, it’s concerning.”Council members took no official action on the masking idea, but Mayor Ken McClure and council members Phyllis Ferguson and Abe McGull asked Goddard to get them more research on how it would be implemented.“The science is clear,” he said. Springfield City Council members are considering the idea of requiring residents to wear masks in public amid a worrying rise in coronavirus cases just a few counties over. “It seems like (masking) would be a much less costly, less impactful resolution.”The number of cases in Newton, Jasper, McDonald and Barry counties has more than doubled in the past seven days and now the Joplin area is part of the No. The more we can do to drive those rates up, the better we’re going to do as a community.”He also pointed out that if Joplin area hospitals are overwhelmed, patients could be transferred to Springfield, reducing local hospital capacity.They specifically asked for more information on how the idea is working in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which adopted an ordinance last week amid a spike in cases in that region.Springfield City Council members are considering the idea of requiring residents to wear masks in public amid a worrying rise in coronavirus cases just a few counties over.The idea came up in the council’s weekly lunch meeting Tuesday after Springfield-Greene County Health Department Director Clay Goddard offered his latest update on the virus and expressed concern about outbreaks in counties around Joplin.But Goddard also noted masking has also become a politically charged issue, with some rejecting the idea as an attack on their freedom not worth any benefit the masks could offer.Councilman Craig Hosmer said he thinks most people would abide by a requirement if council passed one, especially given the alternatives in another outbreak.Springfield is still in the process of gradually “re-opening" with businesses operating under capacity limits, and it's not clear how many could survive another stay-at-home order like the one in place in March, April and early May.“The question is ‘Is the community ready for an ordinance?’” he said. The City Manager is appointed by Council to be the chief executive and administrative officer of the City.