HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) – Hastings joined a host of other Nebraska cities in passing a mask mandate on Monday. The Hastings City Council unanimously approved the measure, which will go into effect Thursday, Nov. 26.

The council voted after a nearly two-hour long discussion that included public input and briefings from local healthcare workers.

Executive Director of South Heartland District Health Department Michele Bever spoke with the city council via Zoom. She said the number of new Coronavirus cases are rising rapidly in the last few weeks.

According to Bever, Adams County was averaging 12 new COVID-19 cases each day during the first week of October. By the first week of November, they were averaging 38 new daily cases. As of Nov. 23 when she spoke with the city council, she said Adams County had an average of 56 new positive tests every day.

Bever said she was hopeful the new mask requirement would help them get the surge under control. She quoted a study from the University of Kansas Institute for Policy and Social Research which she said looked at Kansas counties with and without mask policies and saw a decrease about two weeks after those policies were passed.

Mary Lanning Healthcare’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Abel Luksan also spoke at Monday night’s meeting. He said this pandemic was unlike anything their hospital had ever seen.

“We’ve never had any kind disease process an entire floor, now we have an entire floor of COVID and also overflow,” he said via a Zoom call. “We also had more deaths in the last two weeks with COVID then we had the entire last year due to the flu. COVID is much more contagious than the flu.”

An emergency room nurse also spoke at the public hearing Monday night. Valerie Bowers shared a story about one of her recent shifts and experiencing COVID patients dying in the hospital.

“I just want to tell you that we on the front lines are not working tirelessly, we are exhausted,” Bowers said. “We are sick and tired of people calling us heroes and thanking us for what we do, then turning around and refusing to do the bare minimum to make our jobs easier and protect their neighbors.”

Despite the many doctors, nurses, students, church leaders and other community members who spoke in support of the mask mandate, there was also several people there to urge the city council to vote against it.

“I’m here because I am worried about our freedoms,” Carlton Haggens said. “I know that COVID has started off as an exponential threat, but it’s been proven over and over again that a piece of paper [a mask] isn’t going to save us from a cold. It’s ain’t going to save us from the flu. It’s caused more harm in some people that I know of that it’s done good.”

“In the US we used to have something called personal freedom. Personal freedom means personal responsibility, personal choice,” another speaker said. “It means the opportunity for a person to assume risks as conscience, knowledge and intelligence dictate....The Coronavirus has been used to justify many unprecedented actions, most of them contrary to personal freedom.”

Other opposers of mask mandates echoed those comments about losing their freedoms. Some also questioned if masks really work and if this is necessary. There was also a few dozen people who stood outside of City Hall with signs in protest of the meeting, all with similar concerns.

The city council thanked everyone for coming out to share their opinions and said they heard what all was being said. In the end, they voted unanimously to pass it.

“What it comes down to, and I hope people understand that, is we want to have the hospital beds capacity that’s needed,” Mayor Corey Stutte said. “Last week we had zero ICU beds one day and I think that’s a big concern.”

The new mask mandate policy mirrors the one that recently went into effect in Kearney and also one expected to be passed in Grand Island.

Under the mandate, anyone over five years old will be required to wear a face mask while at public indoor locations with a few exceptions.

Exceptions include:

- People sitting in an office with a plastic barrier between them and their visitors

- Workers alone in an office or vehicle

- Locations where there is room to social distance with at least six feet between people

- People who are exercising or swimming

- Athletes only while playing a sport

- People performing religious ceremonies

- When communicating with someone who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing

The mandate is set to last until Feb. 23.