Masks, temp checks, social distancing no longer required in Manatee County buildings
Visitors at county-owned properties will need to take personal responsibility to prevent the spread of COVID-19 after the Manatee Board of County Commissioners voted to repeal all mandatory safety measures.
The board’s rollback comes a week after Gov. Ron DeSantis put an end to local government’s ability to put COVID safety measures in place. Moving forward, people need to be smart and protect themselves, commissioners said.
“People can make their own decision,” said Commissioner George Kruse, who brought the topic up for discussion at Tuesday’s public meeting. “All COVID regulations that were instituted and mandated for Manatee County Government property should be removed immediately.”
Commissioners voted 6-1 to approve Kruse’s request. Commissioner Reggie Bellamy cast the dissenting vote. Tuesday’s vote applies to county-owned properties, such as the administration building in downtown Bradenton and libraries.
“Let’s get past the mandatory decisions,” Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said. “We can’t continue to rule people’s lives this way.”
Wearing a mask in public indoor settings is still the official guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even if you’ve been fully vaccinated. The county’s decision does not apply to private businesses, which are still allowed to enforce their own COVID-19 safety policies.
On Tuesday, the Florida Department of Health reported 103 new infections of the novel coronavirus. Since the pandemic began, 38,982 people have contracted the virus in Manatee County. The county’s death toll is 678.
As of Tuesday, almost 44 percent of Manatee residents had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 34 percent have been fully vaccinated, according to the state’s daily vaccination report.
Before voting to repeal mask requirements in county-owned buildings, Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge and Baugh railed against the guidance of public health officials and undermined scientific studies that found mask-wearing to limit the spread of COVID-19.
“I just cannot for the life of me think we’re going to keep masks as the thing that changes all of COVID. It’s not. I know of people that have come down with COVID that had a mask on, so it’s not the major protection there,” Baugh said. “What we need to understand is that we have to be smart. We know what that means.”
“The World Health Organization is corrupt,” Van Ostenbridge added. “The CDC is losing credibility by the day and Dr. [Anthony] Fauci — nobody listens to that guy anymore. He’s telling us it could be years where we’re going to be wearing masks, but at first, it was just to bend the curve.”
Dr. Jennifer Bencie, the county health officer with the Florida Department of Health-Manatee, urged residents to continue wearing masks as a protective measure, especially when they’re around others who may not have been vaccinated.
“If you’re in a public space and you don’t know if others have been vaccinated, it’s your choice to determine if you want to wear that mask. We have the variants and you have breakthrough cases,” Bencie said. “The vaccine isn’t 100 percent and that’s why people still get the flu. It’s very few, but do we know the immunity on these? Will we need booster shots in six months? We just don’t know that. If you’re in a public space, stay six feet apart if you don’t know if others have been vaccinated or not.”
About 52 percent of Manatee residents who are eligible for a vaccine — people 16 or older — have been inoculated, Bencie said.
Bencie also informed commissioners that the COVID-19 testing site outside of the Bradenton Area Convention Center will be shut down on Saturday, while two other testing sites in Sarasota will be closed by the end of the month.
Kruse said he wanted to end the COVID measures because the vaccine is readily available. He said he believed that anyone who hasn’t taken the vaccine yet isn’t likely to do so anytime soon.
“From a goalpost standpoint, anyone who isn’t vaccinated today isn’t going to be vaccinated tomorrow or the next day,” he suggested.
Manatee has seen an extreme decrease in demand for the COVID-19 vaccine. The county recently announced that it plans to ramp down its vaccination efforts. A recent vaccination event that didn’t require an appointment attracted only 330 people.
Speaking in support of county employees who would still prefer masks, Commissioner Misty Servia made a successful push for the county to still provide masks by request.
“Please use your best judgment going forward,” Kruse wrote in a Tuesday evening Facebook post. “We trust you.”
This story was originally published May 11, 2021 at 8:16 PM.
