MILWAUKEE- You may soon have to mask up again if you’re out and about in the City of Milwaukee.
The City’s Public Health & Safety Committee today debated the efficacy of a new mandate that would require people in Milwaukee to wear a mask while indoors in public spaces.
The proposal was sponsored by Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic and Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa.
“It’s a simple, straightforward ordinance that says folks who walk into a public space, a building, that you have to put a mask on,” Zamarripa told WTMJ. “This isn’t the same one that business owners grappled with over a year ago that also implemented things like capacity limits, it’s simply a mask ordinance.”
The proposal, which did pass the committee this afternoon with 3 ‘yes’ votes and 2 ‘abstentions’. One of the abstaining votes was from Alderman Mark Borkowski, who said the ordinance was still unclear.
“It seems like we are rushing into a decision without knowing what the sam-heck we are doing just to do something whether it makes sense or not,” Borkowski said.
The mask proposal would require people 3 years and older to wear a mask inside public spaces and would remain in place as long as the COVID-19 transmission rate is at, or greater than, 100 new cases per 100,000 residents. The mandate would also only cover the City of Milwaukee, not the surrounding communities or suburbs.
In response to the committee’s vote this afternoon, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce said in a statement it was not confident the mandate would have the desired effect, “Personal responsibility is front and center to living with COVID. A myriad of Swiss cheese regulations applied to a mobile population will not be effective.”
The proposal now heads to the Milwaukee Common Council, which could vote on the ordinance during their January 18th meeting.
