SAUGUS — The Saugus Board of Health voted on Monday to institute a public indoor-mask mandate, which begins on Thursday.
“Obviously, this is very transmissible. Hopefully going this route will help to slow this down,” Board of Health Chairman Bill Heffernan said. “It’s not to punish anyone. I hate wearing the masks, but if it will help put an end to this thing and get us back to normal sooner rather than later, then I’m all for it.”
With cases rising across the country due to the highly-contagious omicron variant, the Board of Health voted, 3-0, to institute the mandate. Also revealed at the meeting was the fact that Saugus had more than 500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the last week.
Director of Public Health John Fralick recommended the mask mandate for indoor public places, citing the 1,312 confirmed cases of COVID-19 affecting Saugus residents in the month of December. There were also four deaths. Fralick said that a lot of businesses in town support the mask mandate.
Board of Health member Maria Tamagna said it’s unfortunate that the board even needs to vote on a mask mandate, saying that one would think that the public would support the measure given the intense spread of the omicron variant. She also hopes that confrontations don’t occur because of the mandate.
“I’d hope people will either put a mask on or turn around and walk away,” Tamagna said. “I’d hate to see people get aggressive or come to blows about whether or not they’ll wear a mask.”
While the battle against COVID-19 has been going on for more than two years, Fralick stressed that there is still plenty of reason to be cautious.
“We’re still in the fight. People have turned the page on COVID when they absolutely shouldn’t be turning the page,” he said.
