Clovis mayor says letting business ‘regulate themselves’ to continue amid Delta variant
Clovis Mayor Jose Flores touted the city’s “hands off” approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying Wednesday he’d expect much of the same even if the Delta variant becomes a greater concern.
Flores spoke in a Zoom call with members of the Clovis Chamber of Commerce, noting the City Council decided to not place any pandemic-related safety restrictions on businesses.
“One thing we recognized very quickly is we could not abide by all the onerous regulations that the county health department and the state official’s — the governor’s — mandates,” he said. “We had no regulations in Clovis and let the business community regulate themselves.”
“Except for a few interventions by (Alcoholic Beverage Control), we were hands off.”
Regulations from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Office and the Fresno County Department of Public Health remained in place through the pandemic until they began to loosen in June. Some Clovis business owners — like those who own Luna’s Pizzeria and House of Juju — bucked those mandates as well.
At least 39 cases of the fast-spreading Delta variant of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Fresno County and neighboring counties as of Friday, prompting concern among health officials. The concern lies mostly in roughly 63% of Fresno County residents who have not been fully vaccinated.
Los Angeles County has begun to raise the alarm about the variant. The state’s most populated county is recommending that all residents wear masks in public indoor spaces regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19. Neither state nor federal health officials have taken that step.
Flores said the city of Clovis would likely treat the Delta variant much like the initial pandemic. “I just can’t see us doing anything different even with the variant,” he said.
The mayor went on to say he himself has been vaccinated, noting his age and potential health complications.
“I will say this — it may be controversial — but I believe California, I believe Fresno County, I believe Clovis have reached this community immunity, herd immunity if you will,” he said. “Therefore we’re in a good place. Everything I’ve heard from reputable scientists says we’re at this point where we’re through the pandemic.”
Health experts generally agree that the U.S. would need 70% of its population to recover from COVID-19 or be vaccinated to reach herd immunity.
In Fresno County, 37% of residents are fully vaccinated and about 51% across the state are fully inoculated, according to health officials.
