Miss. Gov. urged to enforce statewide mask order by State Rep.

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Gov. Tate Reeves is being urged by State Rep. Jeramey Anderson to enforce a statewide mask order after nearly 2,000 coronavirus cases were reported on Saturday.

Rep. Anderson tagged Gov. Reeves in a tweet urging him to close bars, clubs, indoor dining restaurants, and sporting events. He says hundreds of Mississippians could die if action is not taken.

On Twitter, Rep. Anderson wrote:

“Wear a mask! Governor @tatereeves —we’re in a crisis. We need another statewide mask order, rollback the reopening of bars, clubs, in door dinning at restaurants, and restrict sporting events. Hundreds of Mississippians will die if we continue to fail at mitigating #COVID.”

Former State Rep. Robert Foster rejected Anderson’s suggestion saying the decision to wear a mask should be left up to Mississippians. He also says the fear about the coronavirus is ‘irrational’ because it has a ’99.97% survival rate.’

Read Foster’s response below:

“Or, we could let Mississippians make their own decisions about what risks they feel comfortable making. I would agree about being in a crisis, an Economic and Liberty crisis, because of people spreading irrational fear over a virus with around a 99.97% survival rate.”

Gov. Reeves first enforced a statewide mask mandate on August 4. The mandate remained in effect until the governor lifted it on Sept. 30.

Then on Oct. 19, Reeves began to place individual counties under a mask mandate as cases and deaths continued to rise.

On. Nov. 11, Gov. Reeves extended his Safe Recovery Order til December 11. He has since placed 22 counties under a mask mandate: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Hinds, Humphreys, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Madison, Marshall, Montgomery, Pontotoc, Rankin, Tate, Winston, Itawamba, and Yalobusha.

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