Some St. Joseph County and City of South Bend officials knocked Governor Eric Holcomb’s decision to begin lifting the stay-at-home order announced on Friday. Local officials say it's too soon.
South Bend Mayor James Mueller was vocal about disagreeing with Holcomb’s decision to start relaxing restrictions. Mueller says he is "astounded” by Holcomb’s announcement because some parts of the state are not ready to reopen safely.
“I felt that the Governor has responded appropriately up until now, but on this decision, I could not disagree more," he says. "Reopening should be data driven, not date driven.”
Mueller says the pandemic would be best handled at the state level. But he plans to extend the local travel advisory for essential travel only until he feels it’s safe otherwise.
More details about the travel advisory and any other local plans are expected to be worked out in the coming days.
Deputy Health Officer Mark Fox says while St. Joe County has mostly flattened the curve, he still has not seen a clear decrease in COVID-19 cases, noting the data shows it may be too soon for the county to reopen.
“Well certainly our preference would have been for none of these restrictions to be lifted until we had the increased testing capacity and the contact tracing plan the state has put together in place.”
Fox also criticized Holcomb's plan because he says it lifts restrictions too quickly. He says if businesses reopen at full capacity before a vaccine is developed, it runs the risk of a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.
County Commissioner Andy Kostielney says the County will not be taking any measures more strict than what Holcomb has in place at this time.
“We follow the governor’s advice. Is it perfect? No. Is it what many of us were expecting? Possibly not. But I do think it was well thought out and well reasoned,” Kostielney says.
The City of South Bend tweeted out part of Mueller's response.
Contact Annacaroline at acaruso@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @AnnacarolineC16
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