Following the Michigan Supreme Court’s ruling on the governor’s emergency powers, the St. Clair County Health Department is encouraging residents to stay the course with COVID-19 prevention measures.
This is a public health advisory from the St. Clair County Health Department, not a mandate. Other county health departments, such as Oakland County’s, have issued orders that keep a mask mandate in place for public places.
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“The St. Clair County Health Department has been encouraged by the control of viral transmission in our community and urges everyone to continue to support wearing masks/face coverings and practicing social distancing within their establishment and when in public," reads a statement from Dr. Annette Mercatante, medical health officer. "St. Clair County or the community cannot risk losing control of viral transmission at this critical time, and have only these few basic tools to manage this risk. The Health Department will continue to monitor the data and make data driven decisions as we move forward.”
County health officials said private businesses and the public sector "have the authority, rights and responsibility to require masks and other policies to assure the safety and health of their staff and clients.
“We encourage and recommend that they continue the same practices and policies established under the Executive Orders,” reads the statement from the health department.
“Our job has not changed. We are appealing to people’s desire to do the right thing and use the preventive measures we know work,” said Mercatante. “St. Clair County has seen relatively stable COVID activity for the past 10 weeks, so we know that the actions and policies applied so far have been effective. We are working hard to keep our students in school, keep our businesses and government open, and make progress in our economic recovery. St. Clair County does not want to see our success unravel, and see cases and deaths increase. If this happens, we all suffer.”
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- View more: Michigan COVID-19 data