Raleigh’s indoor mask order takes effect. Where the county and other towns stand.

The city of Raleigh began requiring people to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status, in indoor public spaces and businesses at 5 p.m. Friday.

Wake County will issue a similar order next week that will cover the unincorporated parts of the county.

“You’ve seen the data,” Commissioners Chair Matt Calabria told most of the county’s mayors during a virtual meeting with local health officials Friday morning.

“The best information we have available to us indicates that cases are on the rise, there is a threat to the health and safety of our folks, and that is going to impact, not just infection rates, but burdens on hospitals (and) death rates due to COVID-19,” Calabria said.

The Wake order will apply to the nearly 200,000 county residents who live outside town and city limits. Wake County has a total population of 1.1 million residents.

It is up to each mayor to issue a mask mandate, or not, for his or her municipality.

“This is not easy for any of us,” Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said. “I think we all thought ‘Hey we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.’ And now the tunnel is a lot longer than it was a month ago.”

North Carolina has a growing list of cities — including Asheville, Boone, Chapel Hill, Durham and Greensboro — that now require people to cover their faces in public spaces, including businesses.

Other Wake County towns

Several mayors at the meeting had questions, including how effective masks are at fighting COVID-19 and how new rules would be enforced.

Knightdale Mayor Jessica Day said she supports indoor masks but wants to see them required in all of the county’s towns and cities.

“It gets very confusing with the message if we’re not all aligned with that message,” she said.

Garner Mayor Ken Marshburn also said the municipalities should try to agree on one set of rules.

Wake Forest Mayor Vivian Jones wondered how effective local mandates would be if nearby counties like Franklin and Nash don’t have one.

“I am just curious what everyone thinks,” she said. “What good will it do us if everybody in the state doesn’t do it?”

It helps that Durham and Orange counties have enacted mask rules, said Morrisville Mayor T.J. Cawley, adding he hopes Johnston County considers a similar rule.

“We are going to have to try and build consensus and have more conversations on this issue,” he said. “But I think that we can save lives if we go ahead and enact masks now. If we fail to do it, and it continues badly, I’d hate to think we would have to consider occupancy limits again and possible shutdowns.”

On Friday afternoon, Fuquay-Varina Mayor John Byrne, who did not attend the morning meeting, posted a statement on the town’s website, saying it is not enacting a mask mandate “at this time.”

“The troubling trends the Wake County Health Department has identified include rapid increases in cases, higher positivity rates, increased hospitalization and ICU beds space in our hospitals approaching capacity,” he stated. “This is not where we want to be as a community.”

“While the Town of Fuquay-Varina is not putting a mask mandate in place at this time, we are encouraging individuals to wear masks when groups of people not from the same household gather indoors,” he continued. “We support businesses requiring a mask to be worn within their facility just as the Town of Fuquay-Varina has done at our facilities.”

Apex Mayor Jacques Gilbert told The News & Observer he didn’t plan to issue a mask mandate nor join Wake County’s order next week.

“We will continue to follow the governor’s office,” he said.

Mask enforcement

Jones, the Wake Forest mayor, also asked how the rules would be enforced.

“The goal here is to get as many folks wearing masks as reasonably can,” Calabria said, adding enforcement should be rooted in education and supporting businesses instead of calling on law enforcement to issue citations.

Wendell Mayor Virginia Gray asked how Wake County and others provide vaccines in outlying areas.

“The reality is there is nowhere in Wendell, not a single place in Wendell, where I could go get a vaccine,” she said. “We do not have a drug store that supplies vaccinations. We do not have a regional center. We don’t have transportation in Wendell to get people to these things.”

She said she didn’t know the mayors would be discussing masks in their meeting with health officials Friday until she read about it in the news media. The next “logical step,” she said is getting vaccines to places like Wendell.

Shortly after this story was posted online Friday, Amy Braun, interim communications director for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, told The News & Observer there are several vaccine options within five miles of Wendell.

People can find vaccine locations, how to get a ride to a vaccine site and learn how to be vaccinated at home by visiting www.MySpot.nc.gov.

COVID in Wake County

There have been more than 99,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Wake County, with more than half of them in Raleigh.

The week of Jan 3, 2021, was Wake County’s peak for COVID-19, with about 6,000 confirmed cases. Of those, 195 cases were in children 5 to 9 years old, said Dr. Nicole Mushonga, Wake County’s associate medical director and Epidemiology Program director.

“When we look at the past two weeks that particular age group has had over 200 cases each week,” she said. “And that particular age group, 5 to 9, are ineligible for a vaccine.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people who are vaccinated should still wear a mask in public indoor spaces in areas with substantial or high transmission of COVID-19. Nearly all of North Carolina is considered an area of high transmission.

Demand for COVID-19 testing has swelled in recent days and Wake County has expanded its testing hours.

People can find out where to be tested and where to get vaccinated by visiting www.wakegov.com/covid, emailing covid19.questions@wakegov.com or calling 888-675-4567.

Vaccine incentives for city workers

In addition to the mask mandate, Raleigh also announced it will give bonuses and paid time off to city employees who are fully vaccinated by Sept. 17. City employees who are not vaccinated by that date will be required to undergo weekly testing. Vaccinated employees will also receive a $250 bonus and two days of bonus leave.

The city has 4,000 full-time employees.

The requirement will remain in place until Wake County’s positivity rate is less than 5% and there “is no significant or high community transmission.”

The cost of the vaccine incentives is estimated at $1.6 million, and the city is reviewing whether federal COVID relief money can cover it, according to Damien Graham, communications director for the city. The two days off do not have a “direct cost,” he said.

Wake County announced a similar incentive Wednesday. In Orange County, Carrboro and Hillsborough are offering bonuses, and Chapel Hill plans to. As of Wednesday, the city of Durham did not plan to offer cash incentives.

“The data demonstrated that the virus is spreading rapidly and hospitalizations are up,” Baldwin said.

“This is a necessary step to keep people safe and support our small business community,” she said. “The last thing we want is another shutdown. We made the decision that we felt was best for our city at this time.”

This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 10:41 AM with the headline "Raleigh’s indoor mask order takes effect. Where the county and other towns stand.."