New Fairfield Selectman Kim Hanson is calling for enforcement of the town's mask mandate for indoor public places.  He says there's not one particular establishment where the requirement isn't being taken seriously, it's almost every place he goes.  Hanson says if it's enforced once, people will take it seriously. 

The municipal agent assigned to enforce local COVID-19 restrictions in New Fairfield is the fire marshal.  For those who don't want to wear a mask, Hanson urged them to remember when restaurants were shut down and businesses had restrictions on them at the start of the pandemic. 

If COVID-19 cases don't get under control, Hanson cautioned that things could go backwards, beyond a mask mandate.  He doesn't want to see the inconvenience, not to mention illnesses and deaths, that New Fairfield had. 

First Selectman Pat Del Monaco says the mandate was put in place as the science has revealed that vaccinated people can be infected, but be asymptomatic.  She notes that those people can carry the same viral load in their nose and throat as an unvaccinated person so mask-wearing helps protect those around them. 

Del Monaco is reminding residents that children under 12 can’t be vaccinated, and that immunocompromised people and the elderly may not have mounted a strong response to the vaccine.