Chattanooga mayor Andy Berke, in his Thursday evening Facebook Live, highlighted the importance of wearing a mask in public, and tried to dispel the notion wearing a mask is a political move.
He said, “It’s not talking about your party or about who you’re going to vote for president. It’s none of those things. It’s protecting other people, showing them respect, and that you want people in our community to be safe. Not everything is about politics or what side you’re on. Some things are just about keeping people safe.”
The mayor said, “COVID19 is incredibly dangerous to our community and physical health and economic ability. We need to be healthy so our economy can be unleashed.”
“Our cases are too high. They’re going up too fast, and we need to change it. It’s easy to say it’s a virus and we have to let it spread because we can’t control it. I won’t accept that and I don’t accept that. We can change our behavior and we can be a community that keeps each other safe. And we did that for several weeks where our numbers were extremely low.”
Early on in the livestream, Mayor Berke mentioned a study by the New York Times, which shows Chattanooga as one of the new hot spots for the virus.
“ As I was reading the article in the NYT, I was upset about it,” said the mayor. “We don’t want to be known as the community where the numbers are going up. But I also see the faces behind the numbers. Each of them is a real person, and they’re often going to work and this is affecting their financial well-being.”
So as he often does, the mayor asked the community to follow the now-familiar COVID-19 guidelines. These include social distancing and avoiding large gatherings, among other things.
“I’m asking everybody in our community, no matter what your role is, you have a chance to make our community safer,” said the mayor. “So stay six feet away from others, don’t gather in large groups. Make sure you wash your hands frequently.”
He said helping the Latino community during the pandemic is a focus of his administration, with around half of the cases coming from predominantly Latino areas of Chattanooga. In addition to this, he said that anyone who wants a test can get one for free at a variety of locations around Hamilton County.
“Even if the government is opening up these businesses, even if you have the opportunity to do all of these things, that doesn’t mean that you should,” said the mayor, “or that it’s safe, or you can do them without precautions.”