By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — As anticipated, the Board of Health voted last night to end the mask mandate for indoor public settings, including retail businesses, restaurants and town-owned buildings.
However, the removal of the mandate is not effective immediately, as was expected. Instead, the board decided to extend the mandate for one more day to allow the town to put out “messaging” informing the public of the decision to rescind the mask requirement.
Per the vote of the board, the mask requirement will end at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow, Feb. 18.
The latest mask mandate was put in place by the Board of Health on Jan. 5 in response to the spread of COVID-19 fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant. Last September, the Town Council had enacted a mask mandate for all town-owned buildings.
On Monday, the Town Council deferred to the Board of Health with respect to ending the mask mandate in town-owned buildings, so last night’s Board of Health decision effectively ends the mask requirement in all indoor public settings, including town-owned buildings.
Health Director Anthony Chui noted that the recent mask mandate was “a temporary measure to get us out of the omicron surge.” He acknowledged that the “COVID landscape” has changed since then and there has been a dramatic decline in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths from the virus.
“It is reasonable to reconsider the mask mandate,” he told the Board of Health last night. He stressed that his recommendation to end the mask mandate excludes schools, which are under the jurisdiction of the School Committee.
At Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting, Chui recommended that the school mask mandate continue until March 21. He said that the March 21 date would provide a “buffer” against an expected spike in cases following February school vacation.
Asked why schools are different than other public buildings and businesses that will no longer have a mask requirement as of Friday, Chui cited the “denser” school environment and the need to protect teachers as well as students.
The School Committee ultimately voted to end the school mask mandate on March 9.
Board of Health member Laurel Gourville, a nurse practitioner, said last night that she supported ending the local indoor mask mandate, acknowledging that enforcement of the mandate has been “problematic.”
She said that the board needed to adopt an approach of using recommendations and advisories to encourage people to “adopt personal responsibility around health care.”
Board member Elaine Silva, a retired public health nurse, said that she believed that vaccination and masking have worked. She said that what was once a public heath emergency is moving toward a more “endemic’ phase of the disease.
“We can lift the mandate,” she said. “It’s time.”
Chairman Candace Linehan, a nurse practitioner, agreed.
“I think it’s time for masks to be a personal choice,” she said.
Board members and Chui agreed that they would like a day to get word out. Gourville asked for the public’s patience “so we can do some positive education.”
She noted that individual businesses may still choose to require masks.