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Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds is addressing Iowans during her weekly press conference on Thursday, February 4, 2021 in Johnston, Iowa, where she provided updates on COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
(Bryon Houlgrave / The Des Moines Register via AP)
Yowans are no longer required to mask themselves in public buildings as of Sunday morning, according to the latest health proclamation by Governor Kim Reynolds.
The new rules, which reverse the restrictions Reynolds introduced before Thanksgiving, also lift the previous restrictions on the number of people allowed to meet in a space at any given time, along with social distancing requirements for to companies like restaurants and gyms.
“It allows us to do business again at a very critical time,” Iowa Restaurant Association head Jessica Dunker said Saturday at the Des Moines Register.
“We’re … a day before the Super Bowl, which opens a lot of business so people can come in and watch the big game safely.”
Reynolds, who once rejected mask warrants as a measure of “feeling good,” changed his mind in November when COVID-19 cases grew in Iowa and elsewhere.
His office did not provide any explanation for the governor’s decision to lift those restrictions, reports said. Iowa reported 804 cases of coronavirus as of Friday morning and ranks 46th in the country in vaccine distribution, according to the record.
The new proclamation “strongly encourages Yowans, businesses and organizations to take reasonable public health measures in accordance with Iowa Department of Public Health guidelines,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
But at least one prominent public health voice in the state criticized the measure, which was announced days after state officials announced three confirmed cases of the highly contagious British variant COVID-19.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea, to put it bluntly,” Iowa Public Health Association president Lina Tucker Reinders told the record.
“We haven’t come out of the pandemic yet.”