The Norman City Council voted Tuesday to extend the city’s mask mandate as COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the state. The original ordinance was set to expire on Nov. 30, but the council voted unanimously to extend it to March 1.
During the Tuesday council meeting, Norman Mayor Breea Clark echoed other state leaders in calling for Governor Kevin Stitt to issue a statewide mask mandate.
“I wish that our governor would do his job and lead instead of beg when it comes to mask mandates,” Clark said. “Imagine if the state would have had a mask mandate when we put one in place. How many more people would be alive? Look at the numbers we’re seeing in the successful reduction of the transmission of COVID-19 with mask mandates.”
Dr. Dale Bratzler, chief COVID officer for the University of Oklahoma, said during the council meeting that even though almost every county in the state is seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases, a report from the Oklahoma State Department of Health shows that communities with mask mandates had a dramatically lower increase in the number of cases compared to communities without mask mandates.
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