As Covid-19 cases fall and vaccines spread across the country, a handful of governors have dropped state mask mandates, raising tensions with some city leaders who keep their own restrictions to fight new coronavirus strains. .
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds dropped his masked state mandate and social gathering restrictions this month after the number of cases and hospitalizations dropped by about 80 percent since early fall and began vaccination programs in nursing homes. assistance facilities.
“We need to make sure we do everything we can to protect Iowans, especially the most vulnerable,” the Republican governor said in an interview. “But I also need to balance the savings that support people who are trying to support a business or their livelihood.”
Des Moines, Dubuque, Iowa City and a few other cities do not intend to follow the governor’s example of waiving the cover-up mandate, as several new strains of Covid-19 have arrived in the state and the vaccine launch takes longer than expected. .
“I think now is the time to be more diligent than ever,” said Frank Cownie, the Democratic mayor of Des Moines, who put on his own mask in August, a few months before the state.