OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Late Monday, the Office of the Mayor distributed a brief statement from Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert.
"A mask mandate in only Omaha does not make sense who people who live in Douglas and surrounding counties come to Omaha every day," the email read. "What I do support is personal responsibility and accountability, get vaccinated and if you are sick, get tested and follow CDC quarantine recommendations."
The correspondence from Stothert's spokeswoman cited information from the Douglas County Health Department's COVID-19 Dashboard, where close to 70% of residents age five and up are fully vaccinated.
The same dashboard shows that the DCHD has a seven-day rolling average of 1,133 positive cases per day.
"When we had a mandate previously, we used it in combination with other extreme actions including limiting capacity and canceling events, closing city facilities such as libraries and community centers, closing restaurants and bars, and work from home options for many businesses. For a long time, these were our only tools to control the spread of this virus; masks was just one of them."
"I do not support another mask mandate for Omaha."
According to Monday's daily COVID update from the DCHD, adult ICU occupancy in the metro is at 92%.
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