FARMINGTON, Utah — Davis County leaders are asking residents to wear face masks — again — but stopped short of requesting a county mandate.
Cases in Davis County double every two weeks, yet commissioners said it’s not enough to require people to wear masks during a press conference Friday.
“It’s an extraordinary time,” said Davis County Commission Chair Lorene Kamalu.
After facing questions from the community, Davis County commissioners attempted to clear the air on the face mask directive.
“We just need to stay the course and hopefully we won’t have to do anything more serious,” said Kamalu.
County commissioners echoed previous suggestions, including wearing face coverings and physical distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“Before we get to any type of a mandate, we will handle this by people basically pitching in and basically doing the right thing first,” said Commissioner Bob Stevenson.
For the last eight weeks, the county has seen a sharp rise in cases. Director of Health Brian Hatch said he’s seeing roughly 60 new cases a day.
“Again, not a huge number, but none-the-less, a doubling every couple of weeks and if that continues to trend up, you can see how quickly we can be in trouble,” Hatch said.
Cases among the 15-24 age group have skyrocketed within the last few weeks in Davis County.
Hatch says he’s also worried about rising hospitalizations. Yet, he hopes people heed the mask suggestion so things don’t get worse.
“I’m hopeful. Nobody likes to be told what to do. I think the approach that we are still trying to take here in Davis County is to ask and to appeal to the better nature in all of us,” said Hatch.
Davis County is offering up approximately $8 million in grants for small business to help rebound during the recession.
