Mayor Nicholls urges personal responsibility after lifting COVID-19 orders
CBS 13's Cody Lee sits down with Mayor Nicholls following the announcement
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls is speaking out after getting rid of the municipal mask mandate that required everyone to wear a mask.
Mayor Nicholls tells us he’s following suit with Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) to make sure there’s no confusion at the local level.
He's now encouraging personal responsibility. Leaving it up to residents and businesses to decide how they want to move forward in reducing the spread of the virus.
"The first out-of-the-box response should be well what can I do as an individual, to make sure I'm not spreading the virus and I'm not putting people including myself at risk. So from that perspective. We just need to own that as individuals and I think for the most part people in Yuma have," the mayor said.
Recently the city and mayor Nicholls have been expressing concern that the current border crisis would put more residents at risk for contracting COVID-19.
13 On Your Side's Cody Lee asked him if it was a good idea to lift these measures as we see an influx of asylum seekers coming into Yuma.
“What's happening at the border is actually being mitigated right now through some of our nonprofits and some, soon, soon to be provided funding from FEMA, where they're testing, everyone that's being released, and then if they're sick, they actually have funding to quarantine,” Mayor Nicholls said.
“I think the measures are appropriate for the releases of migrants from border patrol because we do have that capability now to test everyone being released,” he added.
Mayor Nicholls wants local businesses to do whatever they can to protect customers and employees as they begin to engage in regular business activities.
“If you're working with people that are at, particularly extensive risk or more direct exposure and there's a concern or maybe your staff’s not vaccinated yet,” he explained.
“As far as business owners, they need to take that analysis, have a good discussion. Think it all through and figure out what's the best way to protect not just their employees but also their customers, while they engage in their regular business activities,” the mayor suggested.
