(PARIS, TN) Henry County Mayor Brent Greer has extended the county masking requirement order through Wednesday night, September 30th. The existing order was set to expire this Sunday evening at midnight.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed Executive Order 59 on August 29th which continues to provide 89 rural Tennessee counties, including Henry County, the option to issue local masking requirements through September 30 to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The Governor’s Executive Order is set to expire on September 30th and it unclear if Governor Lee will extend Executive Order 59 next week into October.

Henry County Mayor Brent Greer stated, “ County positive case numbers are trending downward averaging 5.43 cases reported each day for the past seven days. Presently, the county has 55 active COVID-19 cases, which is down from this time last week. It is possible however, with an extension of Executive Order 59, I will issue an extension of the county masking requirement order as well. Masks appear to make a difference and we will continue to monitor our local data closely and hopefully we will be in a position to rescind our masking order sooner rather than later.”

During a meeting of the County COVID Coordination Team on Tuesday of this week, local healthcare professionals continued to support wearing a mask in public to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our county. Henry County Medical Center is averaging 5-7 positive COVID-19 inpatients being treated during a seven day period.

The Henry County Health Dept continues to provide free COVID testing Monday – Friday from 8:30AM to 10:30 AM by appointment only.