LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Enforcement needed to combat rising COVID-19 cases

Published 12:00 am Saturday, July 11, 2020

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I’m very concerned about the trends and the numbers I’m seeing in our parish. I’m extremely worried that our residents are getting complacent and disregarding the severity of this virus. I believe because we’re seeing our death rate has slowed down, we’re thinking the virus has as well when it’s in fact the complete opposite. It’s actually a spike in cases that we’re experiencing, and it’s only a matter of time before our deaths begin to increase. This is the reason I try to keep our residents informed, not just on the daily numbers, but on the weekly numbers as well. I know some may get tired of me saying mask up or social distance, but I can’t or won’t stop until we have this under control.

As far as the reopening of businesses, I’m not against this. I believe our community and our business owners need this for the local economy and for many owners, this is their sole income of support for their families. But, I do believe every and all re-opening orders should be put in place and strictly enforced by the business owners. Especially the capacity orders, which I do see many establishments aren’t following. I encourage customers that see any business not complying to notify the proper authorities. We must work together to get through this.

What I see we can do better is not just recommend, but mandate mask requirements in any public establishment. A majority of the major establishments such as grocery stores and Walmart already have security at their entrance. The smaller business can enforce this individually at their establishment. We should save our deputies for more of the bigger issues such as crowd control of large gatherings that exceed our governor’s mandate on social distancing. We will never get a handle on this if we don’t work together as a community.

Tonia Schnyder
Councilwoman
District Six