Dr Robert Einterz News Today

South Bend Tribune SOUTH BEND — Last summer and fall, the St. Joseph County Council spent hours, across a series of meetings, debating and ultimately passing an ordinance that allowed fines for certain violations of the county’s mask order. The county never ended up issuing any fines, and on Wednesday, it took the council all of three minutes to kill the ordinance in a bipartisan vote, effectively ending the era of local government-mandated COVID-19 restrictions. All eight council mem...

In an email to government and health officials Wednesday night, Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood sharply criticized St. Joseph County’s health officer for renewing the county’s mask order, suggesting the move blindsided local leaders who expected the order to be downgraded to an advisory. Wood has not publicly spoken about Dr. Robert Einterz’s decision Monday to renew the order through May and has declined Tribune requests for comment. But the email, sent after 11 p.m. Wednesday, was th...

During its four-month slog through heated meetings, St. Joseph County’s COVID-19 mask fines ordinance stirred up controversy as businesses, already reeling from the pandemic, feared the sting if their workers and customers didn’t comply. The opposition led county public health officials to remove language from the ordinance allowing fines against customers, as well as eliminating the potential for fines against businesses because of non-complying customers. And the ordinance took effe...