ATLANTA (US) – To combat the spike in the number of coronavirus infections, Colorado and Arkansas joined a growing list of US states on Thursday to make wearing face masks in public mandatory. This comes after the governor of Georgia prevented the imposition of the face mask rule at the local level.
On Thursday, the US marked 77,000 new coronavirus, which is a record spike for the seventh time this month.
One in five of the confirmed new cases is from the state of Texas.
Officials of hard-hit Phoenix, Arizona and San Antonio are roping in refrigerated trailers and coolers to keep bodies of COVID-19 victims in the wake of a looming shortage of mortuary capacity.
Twenty-six states out of 50 have decided that wearing face masks in public is mandatory, siding with the view of health experts. Announcements on this regard were made by Colorado Governor Jared Polis, who is a Democrat, and Arkansas Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemp signed an executive order on Wednesday revoking face-mask regulations at the local level. But he said residents were strongly encouraged to wear face covering in public.
He is one of the first governors to lift stay-at-home orders and closure of businesses.
The governor on Thursday filed a law suit to override the decision of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, Georgia’s capital, to defy Kemp’s order.
“This lawsuit is on behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their hardworking employees who are struggling to survive during these difficult times,” Kemp said in a statement. “I refuse to sit back and watch as disastrous policies threaten the lives and livelihoods of our citizens.”
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field