Last week the City of Lincoln implemented a mask mandate for city employees due to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. The policy means employees are required to wear a mask when interacting with co-workers, the public or in group meetings with two or more people.
On LNK Today Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird said there were no plans for any other mask mandates. “I haven’t had a single conversation about that with the health team. That’s not something that’s under discussion,” Gaylor Baird says.
She says one of the key metrics is the level of vaccinations. “We’ve got about two-thirds of the community that’s vaccinated. We’ve had new opportunities for younger kids to get vaccinated. We’ve had almost 900 kids vaccinated as of July 19th.”
Gaylor Baird talked about what drove the decision to require city employees to mask up. “”We’re just trying to acknowledge that we deliver essential services to the community and we’ve got to make sure we can continue to deliver them.”
With the Risk Dial in the low orange Gaylor Baird says there is a risk of high spread of the virus in the community. “If you are going to be around a huge crowd you might want to think through some precautions that we’ve used in the past, whether it’s masking or distancing just to try to limit the spread while we get through this latest uptick.”