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Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds addresses Iowans during her weekly press conference on Thursday, February 4, 2021 in Johnston, Iowa, where she provided information on the COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
(Bryon Houlgrave / The Des Moines Register via AP)
According to the latest health proclamation by Governor Kim Reynolds, there are no more obligations to mask in public buildings from Saturday morning.
The new rules – which reverse the restrictions Reynolds introduced before Thanksgiving – also lift the previous restrictions on the number of people who can meet in one room at any given time, along with social distance requirements for businesses such as restaurants and gyms.
“This allows us to go back to business at a very critical time,” Jessica Dunker, head of the Iowa Restaurant Association, told the Des Moines Register on Saturday.
“We are … one day before the Super Bowl, which opens many businesses for crowds to come in and watch the big game safely.”
Reynolds, who once dismissed mask mandates as a ‘feel good’ measure, changed his mind in November when COVID-19 cases increased in Iowa and elsewhere.
Her reports reportedly did not provide an explanation for the governor’s decision to lift the restrictions. Iowa has reported 804 cases of coronavirus since Friday morning and is 46th in the country in the distribution of vaccines.
The new proclamation “strongly encourages Iowans, businesses and organizations to take reasonable public health measures consistent with the leadership of the Iowa Department of Public Health,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
But at least one prominent voice in the state for public health has criticized the move, which was announced days after government officials announced three confirmed cases of the highly contagious British COVID-19 variant.
“I think it’s not a good idea, to put it bluntly,” Lina Tucker Reinders, president of the Iowa Public Association, told the Registry.
“We are not out of the pandemic yet.”