UPDATE: As of 12:00 PM on Wednesday, July 29 there are 81,572 cases of confirmed COVID-19 in Alabama with 1,489 confirmed deaths total number of people in hospital is 9,893.
COVID-19 Update_FB
MONTGOMERY – Governor Kay Ivey on Wednesday issued her fifteenth supplemental emergency proclamation containing an amended Safer at Home Order that includes a statewide mask requirement. Individuals will be required to wear a mask or other facial covering when in public and in close contact with other people, as described in the order. This amended order extends until August 31, 2020 at 5:00 p.m.
- Extension of current order. The Safer at Home order will be extended through Monday, August 31, 2020, at 5:00 p.m.
- Masks. The current order’s mask requirement will continue. Beyond that, the new order contains a few tweaks to provide clarity in this area:
- Masks in schools. The current order’s provision concerning masks in schools speaks only to mask use by “employees.” Under the new order, students in “second grade or above” (including colleges and universities) will be required to wear masks in schools “to the greatest extent practicable” when in close contact with people from another household. See paragraph 14.c. (The “young-child” exception to the general mask requirement will be updated accordingly to mirror the second-grade cutoff. See paragraph 2.a(i).)
- Masks at sporting events. The current order requires people attending an athletic activity to wear a mask “at all times” except when a player or official is directly participating. Under the new order, mask use will be required at an athletic activity only when a person is within six feet of a person from another household.
- Athletic facilities. The current order contains a paragraph entitled “limits on facility access,” which imposes an emergency occupancy rate and which requires closure of certain areas of an athletic facility, such as showers and lockers. Under the new order, this paragraph will be deleted. The facility-access paragraph is unnecessary in light of the other sanitation and social-distancing rules that apply in athletic facilities.
The addition to the order is that masks are required in schools and colleges, where possible, for employees and students in second grade and above.
Previously, that decision was set to be made by individual schools.
“We must remain vigilant if we’re going to get our kids back in schools and keep our economy open,” Gov. Ivey said. “Wearing a mask can’t hurt but it sure can help. More and more people are seeing this for what it is: It’s a way to protect yourself as well as others you work with, come in connect with, care about and those you even love.”
Fifteenth Supplemental Emergency Proclamation
