The Montgomery County Council voted Tuesday to approve a Board of Health amendment that will require seven consecutive days of substantial COVID-19 transmission in the county before officials reinstate an indoor mask mandate.
The vote means that the Board of Health will not reinstate an indoor mask mandate scheduled to be reissued at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, after it had been removed less than a week before.
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The mask mandate was removed Thursday, Oct. 28, after the county had seven consecutive days just below 50 COVID-19 cases per 1,000 people. That’s the threshold the CDC defines as, 'moderate community transmission.'
By Friday, the case count crept back up to 50.3 --entering the CDC’s "substantial transmission" status, thus a conversation began about whether the mandate would go back into effect.
Under the amended regulation, and if numbers stay above 50 cases per 1,000 people, the mandate would be reinstated Friday.
The county's Board of Education will continue to dictate if masks will be required in schools regardless of the council's approved amendment. However, they may take guidance from the decision.