Tifton City Council expanding mask mandate with rise in cases

(TIFTON, GA) – For the City of Tifton, the COVID-19 situation has gotten worse in the month of December, with the case numbers per 100 thousand being much higher than other parts of the state.

That’s why the Tifton City Council enacted an increase to the mask mandate during a special called meeting Monday night.

“The last thing we want to do and probably won’t do is a shutdown. So to avoid that, we can’t keep having these cases go up when the governor says when it hits 100 per 100k, you can do something, and we’re at 620,” says District 2 Councilman, Jack Wolf.

Originally the city’s mask mandate would only apply to those entering city buildings, but that’s been increased to a city-wide scale.

Tift Regional Medical Center President, Alex Le said during Monday night’s meeting that while they’re treating just over 40 COVID patients right now, there is concern for long term preparations.

Le told us Tuesday afternoon, “From a resource and supply standpoint, it takes a lot of supplies to take care of COVID patients. And as other states across the country have the same surges as we are, we’ve been able to stay ahead of it, but we do have concerns…”

There’s also concern that with the onset of the end of the holiday season with Christmas and New Year’s Eve there could be another increase in cases like the weeks after Thanksgiving.

Councilman Folk says that the expansion of the mask mandate, given Tifton and Tift County’s current status is needed, as he feels that this is a vital step towards helping the city’s economy.

He says, “I want people to feel safe in Tifton. I know people who will not shop here because they don’t want to go where there aren’t masks. And they’ve told me that if people wear masks, they’ll go downtown and spend their money. That’s what we want. Safety has to come first when we’ve got the economy to think about.”