SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — A visibly frustrated Mayor Paul TenHaken is making an emotional plea about wearing face masks as Covid-19 continues to surge in Sioux Falls.
“Wear a dang mask when you are indoors. We’re not asking you to sign up for the draft here. We are asking you to wear a mask when you are inside and you can’t distance,” TenHaken said.
The city is concerned about increasing COVID cases and increasing hospitalizations.
Mayor TenHaken says wearing a mask is not about politics.
“I am not sure when or why this issue became so dang political. It’s quite ridiculous, if you ask me, how political this issue has become,” he said.
TenHaken says wearing a mask is a public safety issue, not a political one.
TenHaken expressed frustation with the lack of mask wearing.
“We are asking people to be unselfish in an increasingly selfish socity,” he said.
He also asked people in the region to wear a mask and otherwise comply with CDC guidelines.
“We’re in a tense spot,” TenHaken said. “We need the region to more. To do more to help the schools, to help the hospitals, and to help the most vulnerable.”
The Mayor says most of the patients in the hospital for the coronavirus in Sioux Falls are not from Sioux Falls.
“We need more diligence,” TenHaken said. “We need for you to do you part.”
TenHaken said the City will be unveiling a multi-media campaign to get people in the area to use masks and follow other COVID-19 preventative steps.
Dr. David Basel from Avera said they are seeing the spread of the coronavirus where people congregate, such as break rooms at workplaces.
He was also emphatic about masks: “Masks do work.”
Dr. Michael Wilde from Sanford said, contrary to Governor Kristi Noem’s comments last week about increased testing being the reason for more cases, that is not the case.
“It’s clear, we’re seing an increase in cases and hospitalizations,” Wilde said. “That is an indication of a clear spread. Testing doesn’t have much to do with hospitalization. It does have to do with mitigation.”
He said the number of tests is up but so are the number of positive tests. Wilde said there will be a rise in hospitalizations over the next couple of weeks.
(Mark Russo, KELO.com News, contributed to this report.)
