For the first time since Sept. 30, Clay County residents outside West Point must wear face masks in public venues, something Clay County supervisors addressed during Thursday’s board meeting.

The mask mandate in the county was implemented as a part of Gov. Tate Reeve’s latest executive order on Dec. 1, which added 13 counties — including Clay and Oktibbeha counties. The order will be in effect until at least Jan. 15.

“This is something we knew was coming,” West Point/Clay County Emergency Management Director Torrey Williams told the supervisors. “We’ve kind of been flying under the radar for a couple of weeks now, so no one should really be surprised.”

Lowndes County was added to the governor’s list on Wednesday.

While Columbus, Starkville and West Point, along with Clay and Oktibbeha counties, implemented their own local mask mandates in July, Clay County was under the mandate only during times when it was subject to the governor’s executive order, including a statewide mandate from Aug. 4 until Sept. 30.

Reeves began issuing executive orders requiring mask wearing on a case-by-case basis, beginning on Oct. 9 when nine counties were ordered to wear masks in public venues. As of Wednesday, 61 of the state’s 82 counties are now under the governor’s executive order.

Williams said Thursday the COVID-19 case data was a clear indicator the county would soon be added to the governor’s list.

“They base it on the two-week rolling average,” Williams said. “When you look at our numbers, we are definitely in that group.”

For the week ending Nov. 29, there were 56 new cases reported in the county. The number of weekly cases spiked to 76 for the week ending Dec. 3. As of Wednesday, 24 new cases have been reported this week.

As of Wednesday, there have been 1,023 reported cases and 27 deaths reported in the county, Williams said.

District 4 Supervisor Shelton Deanes said he expects most county residents to comply with the governor’s order.

“Based on what we saw the last time we were under the state order, I think most people will comply,” Deanes said. “You’re always going to have some people who resist, for whatever reason. But our message has always been the same: Follow the guidelines. Even though we haven’t made our own order, we’ve always said that people should follow the advice of health experts and comply with the governor’s orders.”

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].