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As four categories in the trend of COVID-19 have steadily increased over the past 14 days, Halifax County Health Director Bruce Robistow this morning recommended to commissioners a county-wide enforcement of mask-wearing in all retail and restaurant settings including customers.

In his presentation to the board he said doing so would provide a safe environment for employees and dramatically reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus in Halifax County.

Commissioners approved his recommendation in the form of a motion which passed unanimously with Commissioner Patrick Qualls absent.

Robistow said this afternoon he will be sitting down with Deputy County Manager Dia Denton to craft a communication and a timeline. “The sooner we get this going the better. This is the only recourse we have to reverse the trajectory in Halifax County. By doing so it will protect more citizens in Halifax County and enhance the opportunity for more businesses to open. 

“If we don’t do this the potential for reclosing as we have in the past is imminent. If we keep going in this direction the governor is going to close us down. If everybody were to do like they should and practice the Three Ws we could get closer to normal.”

Robistow said in his monthly COVID-19 update to the board the trajectories in the following categories have steadily increased over the last 14 days — the trend in COVID-like illness surveillance; the trend in lab-confirmed cases; the trend in tests returning positive; and the trend in hospitalizations.

Since Sunday the health department has added 33 new positive cases bringing the total since testing began in March to 1,480.

There have been 27 related deaths.

In discussing recommendations to reduce the spread of the virus, Robistow said, “The Three Ws — wearing a mask, waiting 6-feet apart, and frequent handwashing —remain the greatest opportunity to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The volume of complaints I get from the public and personal observations indicate there is minimal compliance with the governor’s executive orders in the retail market.”

That includes restaurants, he said. “What this means is the employers are not ensuring that the employees are wearing masks. They’re allowing people to come into their stores without wearing masks.”

In contact tracing he said, “It’s almost never do we trace anyone that doesn’t tell us about an experience going into Walmart or Food Lion or a meat shop or a pharmacy or a restaurant and people aren’t wearing masks. If you go into a retail environment without a mask on you are risking everyone that’s in there.”

Robistow said he has yet to have any experience where staff are all wearing masks or where customers are wearing masks. “Those wearing a mask in a retail environment are the minority.”

Businesses can make concessions for customers who can’t wear a mask because of other health issues such as offering curbside or delivery service, he said. “There are so many options available, but allowing people to come into a retail environment without a mask on is unacceptable under this executive order as it’s unacceptable for any of the staff that are working.”

In his rounds across the county the health director said he sees the best compliance within government. Outside the government setting is a different matter, he told the board. “I’m proud of the fact it seems the safest place to be is working in the county. Once you get outside of work and go anywhere from any gas station to Food Lion, Walmart, you’re compromising your own health by just getting essential things.”

Robistow asked the board to “strongly consider” the recommendation for  enforcement and that it be delivered to all municipalities within the county. “We need to get this under control the best way possible. It’s not fair to those that want to be safe and want to go out shopping. This needs to be a concerted and a team effort (in) communicating to them that not everyone has been in compliance and letting them know that they will be held to the standard and must comply.”

He said a date must be chosen and there should be cooperation with law enforcement. “Once you start measuring it and monitoring it like anybody, it’ll come into play. It’ll start. People call me. They say what should I do? I tell them to call the police. They want to make sure they're anonymous. They’re scared to report it but there’s a lot of people upset about the fact they can’t go to the stores. This is something I wish we could have enforced long ago.”

There should be a 100 percent buy-in from law enforcement, he said. “We need support from the public to report violations. I don’t think it’s going to take a lot because the store owners are the ones who are held accountable. Once you start holding the store owners accountable they will have one of two options — one is to enforce and the second is to cease operations.”

Halifax County is not the only one having problems, Robistow told the board.

County Manager Tony Brown said he agreed with what Robistow brought before the board. “We’ve been doing this for well over six months now and we’re still seeing our numbers going up. There’s something we need to do differently to try to address this. I think it’s important we step it up to a higher level. We’re doing this to protect others and not protect yourself. We’ve discussed this quite a lot on what we could do differently. I think we’re doing a great job at this point but what else can we do because we need to change our stats. They’re not going down.”

During the meeting Robistow said, “We need to make the message loud and clear that we’re going to enforce people wearing masks in our public environment and protect the public health.”

Commissioner Carolyn Johnson said, “If you look at the numbers in Hollister there are a lot of people in a small area with COVID-19.” 

Johnson said she has a family member who tested positive with no underlying conditions and right now he’s fighting for his life. “COVID is not a joke and I think we need to be more serious about how we’re responding to COVID.”