Governor Greg Abbott’s order to lift COVID 19 restrictions including the lifting of the face mask mandate goes into effect today, but many cities in Rio Grande Valley are opting to require them in public spaces and city owned spaces.
McAllen city commissioners have voted to keep the mandate and require masks in city operated buildings since there are still hundreds of new COVID 19 cases across Rio Grande Valley.
“We voted unanimously for everything to stay in place because we are not out of the woods yet. Some of the people are just asking for some type of normalcy, and we are not going to have some normalcy until our numbers – of COVID 19 cases- go down,”said Veronica Vela Whitacre, McAllen city commissioner for District 6 and mayor pro tem.
Businesses and Public Places that require face masks would be able to call law enforcement for people who trespass without wearing them.
McAllen’s mayor says they’re more concerned about people’s safety than arresting residents.
“You know our officers are pretty diplomatic, we’re not trying to arrest anybody we just want to make sure everybody respects each other,”
Said Jim Darling.
