Yesterday the Montgomery County Council, acting as the board of health, made an agreement to end the mask mandate at 12:01am Thursday, October 28, if Montgomery County reached seven straight days of “moderate transmission.
On Monday, local health officials said the mandate would end at 12:01am Friday(because the county would still be waiting on CDC data to confirm the trend).
According to WTOP, council member Andrew Friedson said in yesterday’s meeting that the language of regulation means the 7th consecutive day would fall on this Thursday.
Friedson is quoted as saying, “if the Capitals win seven consecutive games, the first game that they won counts by any plain language understanding of what that means”.
Per the Montgomery County government website, “Montgomery County’s indoor face covering requirement was reinstated because the County reached “substantial transmission” level. It will end when the County returns to a “moderate transmission” status for 7 consecutive days. See the County’s COVID-19 data.”
The indoor requirement was reinstated back in August and would be reinstated again if the county returned to “high transmission” status for 7 consecutive days.
This does not, however, mean that students and teachers will not have to wear face coverings at school as MCPS will have to make their own decision on the issue if the Maryland State Board of Education decides to lift its mask mandate. The state BOR will revisit the issue in December.