Tennessee’s most populated county reimposes indoor mask mandate

Tennessee’s most populous county reimposed a face mask mandate Wednesday amid a surge in coronavirus cases.

Shelby County’s mask mandate applies to all indoor public settings including bars, restaurants and gyms, and takes effect starting Friday evening. A county health department spokeswoman said the order also applies to retail businesses, grocery stores and laundries, according to The Associated Press.

Shelby County, which includes Memphis, had a mask mandate in 2020 for businesses, but officials lifted it earlier this year, according to the AP.

The news follows Memphis-area hospitals’ emergency departments sending a letter to the city’s chief operating officer Doug McGowen Tuesday asking him to reinstate a mask mandate as Memphis experiences a rise in coronavirus cases, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.

“Currently our system emergency departments are operating dangerously overcapacity and housing dozens of admitted patients in each of our emergency departments,” McGowen read from the letter at a city council meeting. “Projections for COVID patients who are hospitalized will double by the end of the month and increase sixfold by the end of September.”

Tennessee saw an average of 549 new coronavirus cases a day over the past week in children 10 years or younger, compared to 347 for the seven previous days, according to the AP. The state peaked at 549 cases daily over a seven-day period in December.

Other areas in Tennessee have recently been vocal about their aversion to mask mandates, most notably at a school board meeting last week near Franklin, Tenn., where parents surrounded health care professionals and yelled obscenities at them.