It’s funny that not long ago it was illegal in some places in the country to walk into a bank with a mask on but soon it might be against the law not to wear one when going into a bank.
That’s not the case yet. However, on Thursday, May 7, the City of High Point Transit System announced that it will require all passengers using the service to wear protective masks – or at least some sort of face coverings – starting on Monday, May 11.
The masks can be seen these days on more people than not, and, in Guilford County, some businesses have adopted policies that require people entering to wear a face covering in order not to spread the coronavirus. While before the pandemic the masks were seen as a method to protect the user, it’s now seen as a method to protect others.
If you want to use the High Point transportation service after Monday, your mask must cover your nose and your mouth. Passengers who don’t have a face covering will be given a disposable mask. That may actually prompt some people to use the system since masks have, like toilet paper and meat, been in short supply in recent weeks.
According to city officials, High Point adopted the requirement in accordance with a national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory to use a face covering to slow the spread of COVID-19. Early in the pandemic, federal health officials stated that masks weren’t helpful in the prevention of the spread of the disease, but that was largely something they made up in order to prevent a run on masks that were needed by medical professionals.
Though you do have to wear a mask to use High Point transit, you still don’t have to pay anything to do so. City officials stated Thursday that rides will continue to be free until further notice – “but passengers must have an intended destination.”
Rides are not free they still come out of the taxpayers pocket.
I refuse to wear a mask outdoors, or in large indoors businesses, like grocery or hardware stores. I keep my distance as it is common sense. These masks that most people wear are useless against a virus. I would avoid closed spaces like a bus, but would wear a mask in there if I had to use the bus.