Dear Mayor Maddox and Members of the Tuscaloosa City Council,

Alabama, and all of the surrounding states are now facing increasing cases, hospitalizations, and ultimately deaths, due to the rapid spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19. The rise in cases also brings about new economic and community concerns. We want our schools to remain open to in-person learning. We want our businesses to remain open. However, this strain is presenting new concerns:

• With Delta, each infected person infects 5-8 people (as opposed to 2-3 people as before);
• Delta is also causing a higher number of cases requiring hospitalization of people between the ages of 18 and 49 (CDC);
• There is no state or city mask mandate.

Masking is a valid public health mitigation strategy. It is effective at curbing the spread of COVID-19. Our community has already demonstrated that we can adopt masks and mitigate spread. We advocate for city-wide mandates for several reasons:

• The rapid spread of the Delta variant is already filling up local and regional hospitals who are struggling to maintain enough staff to treat the sudden spike in cases.
• Emergency services for accidents, heart attacks, and other problems are limited as our emergency rooms are at capacity.
• ADPH now reports all 67 counties including Tuscaloosa are at high risk for community transmission, with 3,815 new cases since Monday, and that Alabama still has one of the highest test positivity rates in the nation at 24%, and one of the lowest vaccination rates at just 34%.
• Thousands of students returned to campus for full time in-person learning.
• American Academy of Pediatrics shows that pediatric cases accounted for 19% of all Covid-19 cases during the second half of July, 2021. 

We, the undersigned, implore you to urgently implement this mandate for masking to halt the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. We must act NOW. We are all still struggling to recover from the many losses of the past year and a half. A citywide mandate for universal masking will save lives, help avoid another lockdown and, in turn, keep our economy afloat, and help keep our children in school. Moreover, we are advocating for the mask mandate to include all people aged two and up, in accordance with ADPH recommendations.