On Tuesday the Montgomery County Council voted to approve an amended Board of Health regulation to require seven consecutive days of substantial COVID-19 transmission in Montgomery County before an indoor face covering requirement is reinstated in areas open to the public.
The indoor mask requirement would have been reinstated on Tuesday, November 9, as the seventh consecutive day of substantial transmission would technically have been on November 5 (with a four-day grace period to allow numbers to be confirmed with CDC data). Today, however, on November 4th, the Montgomery County numbers dropped below 50 cases per 100,000 persons, coming in at 49.5
The County is deemed an area of substantial transmission if it reaches 50 to 99.99 total new cases per 100,000 persons in the past seven days or 8 to 9.99 percent test positivity during the past seven days. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classifies transmission values as low, moderate, substantial or high.
The amended Board of Health regulation became effective immediately upon its adoption by the Board of Health and would automatically terminate at 12:01 a.m. on the day immediately following the date that 85 percent or more of the County’s population is fully vaccinated, as reported by the CDC on its COVID Data Tracker.
The indoor mask requirement was lifted at 12:01am on a Thursday morning after 7 consecutive days of moderate covid transmission.
Due to the wording of the Board of Health orders, it was announced that the mask mandate would return on Wednesday, November 3rd at 12:01am after the 7 day average surpassed 50 cases per 100,000 people bringing the county into substantial transmission.
Today the County Council announced that it would be meeting on Tuesday, November 2nd to hold a public hearing and vote on the amended Board of Health regulation on indoor mask requirements.
View the proposed amended Board of Health regulation that the Council will take up on Tuesday that would require 7 consecutive days of substantial covid transmission for an indoor face covering requirement to be reinstated in areas open to the public.
The indoor mask requirement will no longer be in effect in Montgomery at 12:01am Thursday morning, but the city of Takoma Park announced earlier this evening that it would continue with its mask mandate.
Takoma Park city manager Jamal T. Fox communicated the continuation of the policy via Twitter, writing that “Vaccines in children ages 5-11 will need time to take effect, plus CDC Guidelines & holidays are all reasons to take a healthy approach to stay the current course!”
The tweet can be seen below.
This just in…@TkPkCityMgr states #TakomaPark will CONTINUE with the City's Mask Mandate policy to #WearAMask!
Vaccines in children ages 5-11 will need time to take effect, plus CDC Guidelines & holidays are all reasons to take a healthy approach to stay the current course! pic.twitter.com/2wbgMKR09m
— TakomaParkMD (@TakomaParkMD) October 27, 2021
