Mask mandate changed to advisory as cases dwindle

Effective at midnight on Monday, February 14, the hotly debated townwide policy on indoor mask wearing will shift from an enforceable requirement to a “strongly” worded advisory following a unanimous vote by the town’s Board of Health earlier this week.

Citing a rapid decline in COVID-19 cases, vaccination rates exceeding 80 percent, and increased access to home test kits, BOH members all said they were comfortable making this change but repeatedly emphasized that the masks should still be worn — for the time being at least.

“We absolutely, strongly support mask wearing,” said member Julie Goodman. “We just think it makes sense at this point to change the mandate to an advisory.”

The move comes as many other locations consider similar measures, with a number of cities and states already announcing an end to mask mandates and some announcing similar plans for schools. In Canton, and in Massachusetts more broadly, masks are still required to be worn indoors in school per order of the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (Update: DESE announced this week that the school mask mandate would be lifted on February 28.)

Individual schools with a vaccination rate above 80 percent currently have the option of waiving the mask requirement, but that decision rests with the School Committee and the recent BOH vote has no bearing on the matter.

Also unaffected by the board’s decision are medical facilities, public transportation systems, and any other setting where masks are required by state or federal order.

The key difference with an advisory, according to Goodman, is that the focus moves from enforcement to education, and in that spirit, board members recommended that residents continue to adhere to CDC guidance, which recommends that people continue to wear face coverings, preferably tight fitting N95 masks, when frequenting indoor public spaces.

For those who are vaccinated, the CDC advises mask wearing indoors when in areas of “substantial or high transmission,” and the Canton mask mandate, as amended on September 9, had tied the requirement to those same metrics.

Based on the most recently available COVID data, Canton was still in the “high” risk level as of February 4, albeit with every major indicator trending lower as part of a sustained downtrend.

Most importantly, noted Public Health Nurse James Goodrich, the case numbers have dwindled rapidly over the past several weeks, down from a peak of over 400 cases in a seven-day span during the height of the Omicron surge in early January to 67 cases last week. Similar trends have been reported across the commonwealth and the Northeast region as an increasing number of health officials call for a shift from a pandemic response to an endemic response.

Goodrich himself said COVID appears to be well on its way to an endemic state and called the recent data trends “very encouraging,” not only for Canton but the nation as a whole.

BOH members echoed the optimistic sentiment and praised the town’s residents for taking the COVID threat seriously and adhering to experts’ guidance on vaccinations. Canton Health Director Barbara Reardon said the overall vaccination rates look “terrific,” but they would like to see an uptick in the booster numbers, especially with 12-18 year olds now eligible.

Reardon said the Health Department hosted a total of 40 vaccination clinics in the past year and will continue to schedule additional clinics with a focus on vaccinating kids ages 5-11 and providing boosters for anyone 12 and up (the younger group is not yet eligible for a booster vaccine).

In the meantime, Canton health officials will continue to closely monitor the COVID data and ask that people take the mask advisory seriously in order to ensure that the numbers stay down.

“We’re still encouraging everybody to wear a mask [indoors] — and a good quality mask,” noted BOH member Alan Rapoport.

Reardon added that individual business owners can still enforce their own mask mandates and customers should honor that decision. “If they want to require a mask they can do that,” she said. “They can be more conservative if they choose to do so.”

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Posted by Jay Turner on Feb 11 2022. Filed under News, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.