DESOTO COUNTY, Miss — Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves extended the state's safe return order and issued a limit for school extracurricular activities.
He believes it will help the students stay motivated for school while helping slow the spread of COVID-19.
Friday Reeves extended the safe return order to August 31.
It includes the state-wide mask mandate.
He also issued crowd -size limitations for extracurricular activities.
“Twenty-two players on a field is not going to overly stress our healthcare system," said Reeves in a press briefing. "However, 2,000 people in a small school’s bleachers absolutely could.”
Events can not have more than two spectators for each student participating in an activity, which includes football players, band members and cheerleaders.
In Friday's announcement, Reeves said his biggest worry was sporting events attracting large crowds.
“I believe that this a prudent step to help us ensure that we can keep kids in the classroom, which is our number one priority. I don't know how many more drop outs we would have in this country without sports."
The order came with a mix of reaction online with one person saying "I can go to a football game, but I can't go to my nephew's military graduation?"
Another commenting "If these kids can sit elbow to elbow in classrooms with their masks on, you should allow families to sit with masks on and watch their kids play ball."
The Mississippi state health officer also spoke on teams and quarantine rules.
"If there's an outbreak within a team, within a football team too, the whole team is going to have to quarantine," said Dr. Thomas Dobbs.