DALY CITY – San Mateo County Supervisor David J. Canepa made the following statement today after the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution urging face covering compliance and directing staff to develop a community outreach plan. Violations of the order can currently be charged as a misdemeanor with associated fines, according to the state Dept. of Public Health and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“If you don’t wear a face mask and practice social distancing during this pandemic then you are putting the entire community at risk of the deadly COVID-19 virus,” Canepa said. “I’m not interested in putting anyone in jail but there must be some consequences to violating this order. We are developing a community outreach plan to urge compliance but it that doesn’t work we may have to take it a step further and start fining people. We’ve made a lot of progress in opening the economy back up but if we see a surge in cases and hospitalizations then we may suffer another crippling economic lockdown.”