Governor considering shutting down bars to curb spread of COVID-19

Gov. Tate Reeves indicated he is considering shutting down bars in Mississippi to reduce the spread of COVID-19 infections.

During his news conference Wednesday, the governor was asked if there were takeaways and suggestions from his earlier meeting with White House COVID-19 Task Force Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx.

“One of the takeaways that I had today is while things are really bad here, they could be a lot worse,” Reeves said. He mentioned neighboring and nearby states such as Louisiana and Texas, where the COVID-19 numbers are far beyond those of Mississippi.

He then mentioned that several states had shut down bars.

“It seems to be a pretty strong recommendation,” he said, because “particularly young people” tend not to follow guidelines to curb the spread of the virus while in bars.

“For whatever reason, they tend to veer away from wearing masks while in bars and veer away from socially distancing, and that is not a good recipe for success,” Reeves said.