The Shelby County Commission, meeting in committee on Wednesday, has moved to support stepped-up responses to meet the mounting menace of a Delta variant surge.
After listening to testimony from Shelby County Health Department director Dr. Michelle Taylor indicating her intent to issue directives requiring a new 30-day universal mask mandate in Shelby County and reinstituting six-foot social distancing indoors, a Commission majority cast votes in favor of the directives.
The majority also approved a resolution, advanced on Tuesday by the body’s Black caucus and supported by the Memphis City Council, asking Governor Bill Lee to rescind his executive order allowing parental opt-outs to mask mandates authorized by governmental or school authorities.
And the members present voted preliminary approval of a resolution by Commissioner Tami Sawyer to authorize $1.5 million to purchase 300,000 masks from the Henry Mask Company of Memphis.
Before taking the actions and hearing from Dr. Taylor, the Commission had also listened to a group of residents from Collierville criticizing the Governor’s executive order and seeking stronger responses to resist the wave of new infections, including school mask mandates and procedures allowing students isolation from non-mask wearers in schools.
The Collierville group was in contrast to a group from the same community which had protested against mask mandates at an earlier Commission meeting.