Upstate city requires masks for employees and visitors in city owned buildings

The city of Greenville has imposed a mask requirement for employees and visitors in city-owned buildings while COVID-19 transmission is high.

The announcement Monday came an hour or so before the City Council was to be together in a work session and later in a regular City Council meeting.

The city’s statement said the mandate aligns with current CDC and state Department of Health and Environmental Control recommendations.

During the evening City Council meeting. Dr. Marcus Blackstone of Bon Secours St. Francis Health System said four weeks ago there were no hospital patients with COVID. Now the number is about the same as a year ago. He estimated 85 percent of them are not vaccinated and 10 percent have received one dose of the vaccine.

The hospital system has reduced the number of visitors and the hours of visitation as has Prisma Hospital. The good news, he said, is that the number of vaccines given have increase each day for the past two weeks.

“We know people are weary of COVID-19 and its protocols, but wearing a mask, washing hands, social distancing and staying at home when sick are proven effective in slowing the spread, the city said in the statement annoucing the mask requirement.

The city rule also says city employees can take their masks off in offices, but masks will be required in city-owned cars when others are with them.

“Parents and guardians will continue to make masking decisions for their children enrolled in our summer camps and after school programs. Employees and parents must wear masks,” the statement said.

Two mothers pleaded with the council to do something about requiring masks in schools, similar to what Columbia Mayor Stephen Benjamin has done. But Mayor Knox White and City Councilmember Lillian Brock Flemming said the General Assembly’s proviso that outlaws mask requirements makes that impossible.

Both were sympathetic to the mothers’ concerns but said the governor and their state representatives were the ones who could do something about it.

Elizabeth Wright said she is “terrified” to send her children to their elementary school.

“This mutation does not spare children,” she said, noting the increases in child cases seen across the country.

“This is even before schools are back in session,” she said.

White cut off one woman who was repeating conspiracy theories about COVID-19, and had another woman escorted from the room when she would not give her address. She said she wanted to talk about the statues in Falls Park that some have alleged are pornographic because they show nude male figures.

Three others talked about the Jorge Marin sculptures that have been displayed in cities around the world. The artwork was sponsored by the South Carolina Hispanic Alliance and approved by a city-wide board on public art. City leaders say the art installation represents strength, compassion, rebirth, hope and freedom and was intended as a bridge between Mexico and the United States.

The statues have been in downtown Greenville’s Fall Park since April and will move to a new city in October, One of the statues has been knocked over twice. No arrests have been made although the city police released a video of the second vandalism.

The city of Greenville was the first in the state last year to require masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The !!citywide ordinance, which went beyond requiring masks just in city-owned buildings, was invalidated by an executive order from Gov. Henry McMaster in March.

This story was originally published August 9, 2021 at 2:52 PM.