Should face coverings be mandatory? The Valley reacts to the county rescinding the health order
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted Friday to rescind some of the public health orders created at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. This includes limitations on short-term rental homes and golf courses. Drawing the most controversy was the county not making face coverings and social distancing mandatory anymore, only a strong recommendation.
Even though Riverside County says face coverings are not mandatory doesn’t mean your city won’t have stricter regulations.
Desert Hot Springs is just one of the cities that is saying face coverings are still mandatory. We spoke with one of the city’s councilmembers, Russell Betts who tells us why.
“The reason we did this is we view the mask as a key step in opening up the small businesses and shops that’ve been closed,” Betts said.
Palm Springs is another city where masks are required. We went downtown to get some reactions.
We spoke with Patsy Trouser who took off her mask right before this interview.
“I think we need to be wearing the masks for quite a little while,” Trouser said.
Patsy's friend Debbie Sunderland tells us why she isn’t wearing a mask.
“I was walking and all of a sudden my mask was gone. I was wearing it here and I dropped it and we retraced our steps and it’s gone and so time to get another one,” Sunderland said.
She also believes masks should be mandatory.
“I think if we are in public we must wear masks," Sunderland said. "There is no vaccination so we have to do something to protect ourselves and others,” she added.
Walking down Palm Canyon a little further we asked Richard Seeley his thoughts.
“I don’t really know all the science. I just do whatever the city tells us to do,” he said.
Dr. Les Zendle is one of the elected directors for Desert Healthcare District and Foundation and he knows the science. He also says wearing a face covering is still important.
“I was very disappointed that the supervisors decided to overturn the county health officer’s order to wear masks in public especially when social distancing can’t be accomplished um we know that the recommendation from everybody is that face masks are worn not to protect the wearer from everybody else but to protect everybody else from the wearer in case the wearer is infected but asymptomatic," Dr. Zendle said.
While there are people like Dr. Zendle who believe it’s too soon for face coverings to not be mandatory, the city of Indio doesn't think so. They are aligning with the county, making face coverings not mandatory but strongly recommended.
