Coronavirus: Georgia governor bans cities from ordering people to wear masks

Officials in 15 cities enacted mask rules for public places that are now void

Georgia governor Brian Kemp has explicitly banned cities and counties in the state from ordering people to wear masks in public spaces.

At least 15 local jurisdictions across the state had implemented mask rules to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which have now been voided by the ban.

Governor Kemp had previously stated that cities and counties do not have the power to mandate the wearing of masks.

Mr Kemp has instead been encouraging voluntary mask wearing, including recently saying that reducing infections by wearing a mask might make the college football season possible.

Prior to the governor’s announcement, officials in Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Rome, and even Mr Kemp’s hometown of Athens-Clarke County, had implemented mask ordinances.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson was the first local official to defy the governor and order masks to be worn. Police would start writing $500 citations to businesses that didn’t enforce the law.

“It is officially official. Governor Kemp does not give a damn about us,” Mr Johnson wrote on Twitter on Wednesday night. “Every man and woman for himself/herself. Ignore the science and survive the best you can.”

The new order also bans local governments from requiring masks on public property, which void requirements that some governments have imposed for citizens to wear masks inside city and county buildings.

However, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms pointed out on Thursday that when president Donald Trump landed at Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport on 15 July he was still breaking the law by not wearing a mask on city property.

Georgia was one of the first states to begin to reopen after the initial nationwide lockdown began in mid-March. By mid-June the number of cases of coronavirus began to surge.

On Wednesday the state had recorded almost 120,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and more than 3,000 deaths.

With reporting from the Associated Press