Mayor James Perkins Jr. issued a proclamation Monday putting the City of Selma under a curfew and limiting gatherings to 25 people maximum in an effort to curb the rise of COVID-19 cases in Dallas County.
In the proclamation, the city references an increase of 189 new COVID cases in the last 14 days and death rate of 31.
The curfew will be from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The crowd limit prohibits gatherings “where a consistent distance of at least six feet cannot be maintained” and includes churches, Perkins said in a speech to the Rotary Club of Selma Monday.
Perkins hopes pastoral and community leaders will take this proclamation seriously and help “lead by example” and make steps necessary to prevent “super spreader” events.
The proclamation does not close down businesses but requires they follow the state’s Safer at Home Order “to further the purposes of the measures that have been ordered to-date to control community spread of COVID.”
Perkins said behavior in Selma must change if the numbers of new cases are going to decrease. He pointed to a weekend of weddings, cookouts with 50-60 people and a packed club of 200 in downtown Selma where few wore masks.
“Death and dying is happening in Selma,” Perkins said. “I want to commend the Vaughan for their good record of keeping people alive, but behavior has to change so we can have less restrictions at Christmas.”
Perkins says he doesn’t want to impact businesses, but reiterated establishments need to enforce the rules themselves.
“I don’t want to shut down the city,” adding that restaurants can still have 25 or under in the establishment but only at one time.
Perkins has instructed the police chief to enforce the mask rule, meeting restrictions and curfew as best the understaffed department can. The health department can close down restaurants that don’t follow the rules.
The last curfew related to COVID in Selma was made on March 28 by former Mayor Darrio Melton that started at 9 p.m.
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