Will Hilton Head follow suit and drop its mask mandate? Here’s what we know
Most of Beaufort County has dropped its mask mandates or let them expire.
Now residents and tourists are asking: Will Hilton Head do the same?
The Town of Hilton Head Island and the City of Beaufort are the last remaining municipalities in Beaufort County with face mask requirements.
After the Town of Bluffton, the Town of Port Royal and Beaufort County’s governments voted this week to drop their requirements or allowed them to expire, all eyes have turned to Hilton Head, to see whether the town will halt the mask mandate before it expires May 16.
But all signs point to “no.”
On Friday morning, Mayor John McCann approved and released the agenda for Tuesday’s town council meeting, which did not include a planned discussion of the mask mandate. The ordinance requires masks in restaurants, bars, stores and all commercial spaces with some exceptions.
Although the pressure may be on to drop the requirements, Hilton Head is in the midst of RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing, a PGA Tour golf tournament that has brought 27,000 people to Sea Pines to watch the pros play this week.
When the council last approved an extension of its mask mandate on March 16, McCann explicitly stated the island should not expect the council to drop the mask rule after play at Harbour Town Golf Links concludes.
But as the number of vaccinations rise and the average daily number of new cases of COVID-19 falls, some council members said the mask requirement should be winding down in the next month.
“I’ve been watching, and the positivity rate has dropped significantly, the new cases have dropped significantly, and the vaccination rate has risen significantly,” Ward 2 representative Bill Harkins said. “I think we have an intelligent and very well educated population, and I think common sense should rule.”
Still, there doesn’t seem to be an appetite for dropping the mandate earlier than its mid-May expiration date.
“I’d rather be a little bit safer than sorry,” Ward 4 representative Tamara Becker said. “We invite a lot of people onto this island, and it’s better to be a little bit more cautious at this point.”
The town council will meet again on May 4. If members hope to extend the mask ordinance, they’ll have to do so at that meeting. If not, they can let it expire on May 16.
One caveat to the mask mandate is that emergency ordinances must be approved by a supermajority of the town council. That means extending the mask mandate would have to be approved by five members of council.
Beaufort County council learned that lesson this week.
Seven of the 11 council members voted to extend the county’s mask requirements for 61 days, but the emergency ordinance needed eight votes to pass. It failed.
This story was originally published April 16, 2021 at 1:12 PM with the headline "Will Hilton Head follow suit and drop its mask mandate? Here’s what we know."
