Milam County Judge: Face masks will be required when out in public

Milam County Judge Steve Young declared a State of Disaster for Milam County stating that all businesses and commercial entities should require employees and patrons to wear a mask beginning at 12:01 a.m. Monday morning, June 29.

“We have a big problem in the county,” Young said in a Facebook Live address on Thursday afternoon, June 25. “We have 78 cases in the county. In the last eight days we have had 30 confirmed cases of the virus. As I speak we have 25 active cases and three people in the hospital.”

There are currently 69 people being monitored for contact with someone who has the virus in the county.

“It has been a lot of responsibility to keep everyone safe as county judge,” he said. “The problem is the numbers continue to go up. The last two 24-hour reporting period Texas has reported 5,500 cases each day. The problem is we don’t have a cure and we won’t have a cure for another year or so.”

Young said the only thing we can do is to prevent the spread of the virus is social distancing and wearing a mask, which prevents the spread of the virus because it is a respiratory virus.

“We know that this virus is spread by those with symptoms and also by those who have no symptoms,” he said. “You can feel just fine and be spreading the virus simply by speaking to others without a mask on.”

Young sited lack of immediate hospital and emergency care in the county as a reason for the order.

“We really don’t have a hospital or emergency care here,” he said. “So when someone gets ill here they have to go to another county for care. We are working on urgent care and want to have that up and going by the first of the year and that will take some pressure off of our facilities and the hospitals in the surrounding area.”

The disaster order requires everyone to wear a mask when out in public.

“I am going to place in effect a second disaster order that will require that everyone wear a mask when out in public,” he said. “This is going to fall on business owners, which I hate, but that is all I can do under the governor’s orders. It is like wearing a seatbelt. It just makes sense.”

Young said business owners could face a fine if they do not comply to the order.

You can go to milamcounty.net and click on Milam County COVID19 Information in the middle of the page to read the entire declaration. Click here: http://www.milamcounty.net/upload/page/9873/Order%20Declaring%20Disaster...

It will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday morning.

Young said any business owner who needs masks can contact the him or Emergency Management Director Bryan Burns to request masks.