The city of St. Louis is asking attendees at the largely mask-less St. Louis County Council meeting, where they voted to repeal the mask mandate put in place by County Executive Dr. Sam Page, to quarantine after one of them tested positive for COVID-19.
St. Louis investigating COVID-19 case at St. Louis County Council meeting on mask mandate:
The city health department said on Saturday that a city resident who attended the St. Louis County Council meeting Tuesday, where hundreds gathered largely to protest the county’s mask mandate, has tested positive for COVID-19.
In a release Saturday evening, city officials said they’re working with the county to identify and notify close contacts of the individual. They recommended anyone who attended the meeting quarantine for the next nine days and monitor their symptoms. [...]
The indoor council chamber was packed Tuesday with people to see a vote to terminate the county’s mask mandate. Most of them were unmasked, and some declared their opposition to getting the vaccine on signs and in public testimony. Many spoke to the council at a public podium. The crowd cheered and jeered throughout the meeting.
The St. Louis area is seeing a rise in new cases and hospitalizations as the highly infectious delta variant spreads across the state. Health experts worried that unmasked, unvaccinated individuals were at particular risk of contracting the virus at the meeting.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is trying to make a name for himself in wingnut circles since he's hoping to replace Roy Blunt in the Senate, filed a lawsuit against the mandate the day it went into effect.
This is the same meeting where Faisal Khan, acting director of the Saint Louis County Department of Public Health, was alleged to have been bombarded with racial slurs after defending the mask mandate.
And look who was in attendance at the meeting.
That's the gun wielding couple Patricia and Mark McCloskey for anyone that doesn't recognize them. Trumper Mark McCloskey is also hoping to replace Blunt, although his first campaign ad seems to have landed with a thud.
