Effective at midnight on August 29th, Williamson County’s county-wide mask/facial covering mandate expired. This was a decision made by County Mayor Rogers Anderson under authority granted through Governor Lee’s Executive Order 59. In response, Franklin Mayor Dr. Ken Moore is issuing the following advisory statement to the citizens of Franklin and those visiting our city:
As Mayor of Franklin, my first priority is to protect the wellbeing of our community. I respect County Mayor Anderson’s position and the decision he made regarding the mask/face covering mandate. However, I urge the citizens of Franklin in the strongest possible terms to continue to wear masks/facial coverings in public and in any area where appropriate physical distancing cannot be maintained. As your Mayor and as a Medical Doctor for more than 50 years, I am imploring Franklin citizens to continue to do their part to fight COVID-19.
Part of what makes Franklin a special place is the care our community exemplifies every day. Franklinites are always ready to help a neighbor or volunteer for a project. In the same spirit, I urge each and every one of our citizens and businesses to step up at this critical time when students are returning to school and we are continuing to fully reinvigorate our local economy.
Governor Bill Lee’s Tennessee Pledge continues with the goal to safely bolster our recovering state economy while keeping businesses open and citizens safe. Governor Lee’s mask campaign is also ongoing, calling on all Tennesseans to fight COVID-19 by wearing masks/facial coverings.
The data clearly shows that we are making progress in combatting COVID-19, but we have more work to do in fighting this pandemic. I firmly believe that the widespread wearing of masks/face coverings has made a positive impact in our ability to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community. Since the active COVID-19 cases peaked on July 19th at 1,545 cases, the community has seen a consistent, steady decline. As of August 29th, the Williamson County community is at 1,129 active cases, a decrease of 26.9%. But keep in mind, this is still a higher active case count than when the initial mask order went into effect on July 8, 2020.
While this progress in encouraging, our community is certainly not “out of the woods” when it comes to beating COVID-19. The fact that there are still 1,129 active cases in the community paired with a current positive testing rate of 7.7% is of real concern.
Again, I urge all citizens and those visiting our community to do their part by wearing a mask/facial covering, keeping appropriate physical distancing, and washing hands frequently. These simple, commonsense actions will help keep you, your family, your friends, and the community safer during these challenging times.
This is a recoverable illness. Why are we shutting down the country for this bug similar to the flu? We must never let ourselves be played again. Per my daughter, a nurse, only n95 masks can stop a virus. We need to unmask ourselves and open our businesses!!!!
~ Soo’ yes it is a recoverable illness, but I’m 72YO’ 3 time cancer survivor and many others at risk like me.. I will continue to wear my mask to protect myself and out of being considerate to others who might be at risk’ I hope they feel the same about me.. it’a a choice of course’ and some say masks don’t work or do anything, and that may be ‘ just like a parachute may not open, but if I’m in an airplane at 20,00 feet and experience engine trouble i will chose using a parachute for sure even though I know it may fail.. it’s all about common sense and being considerate of others that may be at risk.. it’s not a difficult task, please wear a mask, that’s all I ask.. Thank you and Bless us all, Always..!!
Yes I agree there are people at risk for whatever health reasons. Everyone should be considerate of their fellow citizens in Franklin and wear masks. Is that so hard to do? This has been a struggle all over the country to get people to be considerate of their neighbors. Let’s get the numbers down…. wear a mask PLEASE.
CDC just admitted that 6% of the deaths are COVID only. The rest average 2.6 other medical issues. That is 10,000 deaths directly related to COVID and for this we shutdown our economy and idiots have issued #GagMandates.
Thank you Dr. Moore, for standing up for science. Remember Matthew 25 35 everybody, wear a mask for the least of your brethren, in this case those with compromised immune systems.
Thank you Dr. Moore. I just wish you could mandate this for Franklin instead of just requesting. I understand you are constrained by the county Mayor and that is unfortunate for those of us at risk.
Missing from that chart: hospitalizations, and deaths. My guess is those two events have declined to the point of near invisibility, and don’t fit Dr Moore’s narrative. Or am I wrong?
Since we’re getting Biblical, how about “let my healthy people go!” As always, the sick and vulnerable will require extra care and precaution.