HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Protests for, and against, mask mandates are planned ahead of the Hillsborough County Commission meeting Wednesday as the number of COVID cases reaches record highs in the Tampa Bay area.

“Our numbers are exploding. They're beyond anything we've ever had before in Florida,” said Hillsborough County Commission Chairwoman Pat Kemp.

For the first time in months, commissioners will be masked up at Tuesday’s board meeting after the county recently brought back its own mask mandate for all county owned buildings.

When it comes to extending that mandate to the entire county, though, Chairwoman Kemp said their hands are tied because Gov. Ron DeSantis banned local governments from requiring masks.

One group of protesters wants the county to bring back the mask mandate, despite the ban, and another group doesn’t want any mask mandates because they say it fringes on their rights.

Regardless of any mandates, Chairwoman Kemp said everyone has a responsibility to protect people.

She said you should get vaccinated if you can, and haven’t already, and wear a mask indoors.

“We're already behind the curve,” she said. “We're watching this go up, just explode, and so the protection we have right now is masks. Hopefully, we get 10 or 20% more people vaccinated so we can get up to the 70% threshold for herd immunity.

“We have to do everything we can, and in the meantime, our protection from this Delta variant is to mask up. That's a great protective measure.”