City plans to lift in-house mask requirements

MINOT, N.D. – COVID-19 restrictions will be easing in Minot city buildings but not until mid-May.

The Minot City Council voted unanimously Monday to lift mask requirements in city buildings and end specific COVID-19 leave for city employees on May 15. The May date is to give staff time to receive the COVID-19 vaccines.

“Part of the reason I’m willing to support this motion is that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” council member Stephan Podrygula said. “As a political compromise, I’m willing to end the mask policies, but I’m willing to do that under a couple of conditions internally, personally for me. The first is that people continue taking this seriously and then we strongly recommend the staff and visitors that they continue to wear masks for the foreseeable future.”

The council adopted a policy requiring city employees to wear masks or face coverings at work last August. It adopted a resolution requiring visitors in city buildings to wear masks in October. The council modified the requirements in February to make exceptions for cases in which physical barriers and social distancing apply. Masks remain required in all situations for the library, police and fire stations, airport and city buses. Even once the city policy ends in May, a presidential order on masks will apply to federally funded facilities such as the airport and city buses.

The decision to eliminate designated employee leave for COVID-related reasons generated more council discussion.

Podrygula proposed retaining the extra benefits, put in place in March 2020, until October. He reported about $5,000 has been spent in the past month on COVID-19 leave.

“Our employees are vital personnel, and I want to make sure that none of them has to suffer for being out in the field and incurring any risks. The costs are likely to minimal,” he said.

Council member Lisa Olson opposed continuing the leave, noting many organizations ended their employee leave benefit at the end of 2020 when federal support ceased.

“I do feel we have been very generous thus far,” she said.

The paid leave is granted to employees who are sick with COVID-19 or awaiting test results while sick; in quarantine due to exposure or health conditions that require them to avoid public exposure; caring for a dependent who is sick or in quarantine; caring for children due to daycare or school closures due to COVID-19; or have been sent home from work for COVID-19 reasons.

City Manager Harold Stewart said he received no negative feedback from employees after giving notice of the proposed change. Employees still will have traditional sick leave.

In her regular report to the council, Lisa Clute, executive director at First District Health Unit, said two COVID-19 variants are circulating in the area. Higher test numbers are coming back from the eastern part of the state, and it is mostly cases in children and young adults, she said.

As of Monday, 36.6% of Ward County’s population has had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, she reported. Within First District’s seven-county area, that percentage is 38%.

That amounts to 27,752 doses in Ward County. Within First District’s region, there have been 42,395 doses. These numbers exclude Minot Air Force Base, which has a separate vaccination system.

Breaking it down further, Clute provided the following: ages 75 and older, 2,959 fully vaccinated individuals, 71.6%; 65 to 74, 3,326 vaccinated, 68.1%; and 18 to 64, 9,987 vaccinated, 23.4%. This also excludes the air base numbers.

“We continue getting vaccine in. It’s no problem, and we have it available for anybody that wants vaccine now. You can utilize your providers or First District or pharmacies,” Clute said. First District has begun adding single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the doses available and will be offering that vaccine next week.

“We continue to promote and make clinics available on our website, social media, as many places as we can get the information out,” Clute said. “We have also been working with providers and we are hearing the same from everybody. Right now, we are typically receiving more vaccine than we have people wanting vaccine.”

City plans to lift in-house mask requirements

Follow us on Google News

Follow us on Flipboard

Trending Slider

GirIfriend became enraged after discovering a used femaIe hygiene product, which likely beIonged to her partner’s femaIe roommate, before she kiIIed the man with her vehicIe: DA

Boy and his two sibIings started beating their famiIy member, who has 4 chiIdren, with a bat and stabbing her ‘over reguIar, resoIvable things’ before they shot her to death after the victim managed to stand back up: police

New deputy director appointed at North Dakota Game and Fish Department

North Dakota Department of Transportation seeks public input on long-range plan update

Head-on collision on Highway 10 leaves one seriously injured, investigation ongoing

Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library seeks community feedback on future events

Follow us on News Break

Categories

City plans to lift in-house mask requirements

Related posts

Ballot measures just got even harder for actual grassroots groups

he check against dumb ballot measures is more responsive legislating

Minot aldermen question mayor’s use of power in ending mask mandate

Minot community reacts to mayor’s decision to end citywide mask mandate

Bill passed to stop NDSU ties with Planned Parenthood

Minot Airport one step closer to completing upgrades to cargo apron, taxiway

Follow us on Google News

Follow us on Flipboard

GirIfriend became enraged after discovering a used femaIe hygiene product, which likely beIonged to her partner’s femaIe roommate, before she kiIIed the man with her vehicIe: DA

Boy and his two sibIings started beating their famiIy member, who has 4 chiIdren, with a bat and stabbing her ‘over reguIar, resoIvable things’ before they shot her to death after the victim managed to stand back up: police

New deputy director appointed at North Dakota Game and Fish Department

North Dakota Department of Transportation seeks public input on long-range plan update

Head-on collision on Highway 10 leaves one seriously injured, investigation ongoing

Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library seeks community feedback on future events