From left: South Bend Mayor James Muelle and St. Joseph County deputy health officer Dr. Mark Fox. Tribune File Photos
SOUTH BEND — Democratic South Bend Mayor James Mueller said he was “astounded.” St. Joseph County deputy health officer Dr. Mark Fox said he was “disappointed.”
But they seemed powerless to override a loosening of coronavirus restrictions on businesses that Republican Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Friday, despite assurances Holcomb has given publicly that communities could impose stricter regulations than what he laid out.
Holcomb’s new executive order gradually phases out his March 23 stay-at-home order, culminating in a total lifting of the order by July 4. But as they’ve stressed repeatedly over the past week, Fox and Mueller said the South Bend area isn’t ready.
“It is an incredible feat to snatch from the jaws of victory, defeat, when you have the support from your constituents to continue safety measures,” Mueller said. “Just yesterday we had the second-highest increase in cases across the state to date. If we were just going to throw experts and data out the window and roll the dice with people’s lives and our economy over the long term, why have we been closed over the past six weeks? What’s changed between then and now?”
A reporter asked Holcomb a similar question Friday at his daily COVID-19 video press conference.
Copyright © 2024, South Bend Tribune