The New Shoreham Town Council met after this story had gone to press on Thursday, July 29 at 7 p.m. The council voted 5-0 not to impose a mask mandate, but instead to draft a resolution requesting that individuals wear masks indoors. The council will vote on this new resolution on Monday, August 2.
Time to dust off the face mask? The Town of New Shoreham may rejoin the ranks of municipalities with indoor mask mandates, as a way to combat the sharp rise in Covid cases on Block Island.According to Dr. Tom Warcup, Director of the Block Island Medical Center, there has been an escalation of cases in Rhode Island including a tripling of positive Delta-variant patients. This has prompted the Rhode Island Department of Health to classify the state in the Substantial Transmission Category, and on Monday he suggested that the Town Council “consider a mask ordinance again.”“Masks work. There’s no doubt about it,” Warcup said.The doctor reported seven new cases on Block Island in the past week, bringing the number to 11 in the past 14 days. Eleven cases does not sound like very many, but Warcup put it into perspective for everyone: “We had
