Rutherford County Mask Mandate Lifted Early

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Monday afternoon, Rutherford County Mayor Bill Ketron announced that he will be lifting the mask mandate on Tuesday, eight days ahead of schedule.

The face covering order went into effect on July 22 and was scheduled to end on Sept. 30. Instead, it will end on Tuesday at 5 p.m.

In a letter to the residents of Rutherford County, Ketron said, “Your compliance with the order…had a significant impact on our numbers going down. This was hard to ignore. We are encouraged by the data trends and want to continue down that path!”

“This does not discount the fact that the virus is here and not going anywhere anytime soon. Therefore, I am asking that as a community, we revert once more to being #RutherfordResponsible,” he continued.

Ketron states that the CDC have cited that wearing a mask is proven to work, as well as washing your hands and social distancing.

Ketron said, “being #RutherfordResponsible means incorporating all these health practices into your daily routine to continue to effectively slow the spread of the virus in our community.”

According to Rutherford Source, there were 2,518 active Covid cases reported on July 22. On Monday, the number dropped to 600 reported active Covid cases. This shows that here has been around a 76 percent decrease in active cases since the mask mandate was put into place, proving it and other recommended health practices to have helped prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Ketron also clarifies not to judge other citizens’ decision to wear a mask or not when he said, “this does not mean that this difference among citizens should cause discord in the community… Rutherford County is a caring and compassionate community.

“Do not let this pandemic change that, or you!”

As a response to clarify things further for the students of Middle Tennessee State University, Jackie Victory from the Student Organizations and Service Center for Student Involvement and Leadership (CSIL) sent out an email which said, “as many of you are aware, the mask mandate in Rutherford County will be lifted today…Please be advised that all social distancing and masking policies remain in effect for MTSU’s campus and for events/meetings hosted on or off campus affiliated with an MTSU student organization, fraternity or sorority.”

Whether a student is on campus or off campus representing an MTSU organization, they are still required to wear masks in accordance to school policy.

MTSU advised students to wear masks when spending time with others in order to “avoid possible allegations of failing to comply with campus policies” and being reprimanded.

“It remains incredibly important that we do all that we can do to make sure MTSU’s community is protected and able to continue to offer classes and events in-person this semester,” Victory continued and ends the email with,

“Wash your hands and mask up!”