Masks to be required again in all Cobb County facilities, public meetings

Cobb County announces mask mandate at all county facilities

Cobb County Manager, Dr. Jackie McMorris discusses the decision to re-instate its mask mandate for inside all of the county's facilities and at public meetings in this video released by the county's television station.

ATLANTA - Cobb County said on Tuesday it will require masks be worn inside all county facilities. The decision came the same day as the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed one million in Georgia.

Cobb County Manager, Dr. Jackie McMorris said the new mask mandate would take effect this Friday. The mandate will apply to visitors, contractors, and vendors.

"As the result of what is going on across the nation, the region, and of course here in Cobb, we’ve had to make some tough decisions on what we are going to do here in Cobb County Government," Dr. McMorris said.

Georgia nears 1 million coronavirus cases

By the end of Tuesday, Georgia could reach a grim milestone in its fight against the coronavirus. The Department of Public Health says Georgia is fewer than 3,400 cases away from reaching 1 million confirmed cases, and the state is averaging around 4,700 cases every day.

According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, Cobb County has seen 3,368 new cases in the last two weeks with a total number of cases at 68,123 as of Tuesday afternoon. County health officials said some of those cases were within the county’s workforce and is six times what is considered "high community spread" as the more virulent delta variant continues to spread mostly among the unvaccinated.

"We’re in the second month of this and it just does not seem to be going away," said Dr. Janet Memark, Director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health. "Right now we’re seeing younger people being hospitalized, and we continue to see hospitals that are dangerously low on critical care beds and medical-surgical beds."

Outdoor parks and amphitheaters will not be impacted by this mandate, but social distancing will be re-implemented at all public meetings in the county.

Young COVID-19 patients on the rise

Children's hospitals across the U.S. are seeing an increase in young patients suffering from COVID-19.

"Do what’s right," Dr. McMorris said in a video message urging employees to keep our work environment a safe and healthy place. "We sometimes spend more time with each other than with our biological family. We need to take care of each other."

About 39.1% of those 12 years and older in Cobb County have been fully vaccinated well the state average of 46.9% and the national average of 59.4%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Recent data provided by the Georgia Department of Public Health shows that of all Georgian fully vaccinated 99.687% have not tested positive for COVID-19, 99.995% have not been hospitalized for the virus, and 99.997% have not died from COVID-19. The GDPH said a fully vaccinated person only has a 0.313% chance of contracting the virus, a number lowered still by wearing a mask.

Georgia's effort to increase vaccination, testing during latest wave of COVID-19

Dr. Kathleen Toomey, director of the Georgia Department Of Public Health, said they are working to increase vaccinations and decrease people's needs to go to emergency rooms unless they have to as new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise due to the more virulent delta variant.