City public health officials on Tuesday lifted the mask mandate in place since last year, citing improving coronavirus trends. The mandate ends on Saturday, March 5, though it will still apply in public transportation areas, like trains, taxis and MBTA stations, and in Boston Public Schools.
At the state level, the mask mandate for schools ended on Monday, Feb. 28.
The city has been under a state of emergency since March 2020, when the coronavirus spread ramped up in Massachusetts and the rest of the US. A face covering requirement has been in place for retail establishments, restaurants, bars, performance venues, event spaces, municipal buildings and other venues open to the public.
The decision to lift the mask mandate for certain indoor venues came at a half-hour meeting of the seven-member Boston board of health, after a presentation from Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, commissioner of public health and executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission. The board voted to approve Ojikutu’s recommendation to lift the mask mandate. Along with schools and public transportation, masks are also recommended for city-owned buildings that see vulnerable populations come through its doors, such as Boston Public Library branches and community centers.
The board plans to meet on Wednesday, March 9 to discuss masking in schools.
People should still consider masking if they are around young children who do not have access to vaccines and the immunocompromised, according to Ojikutu.
Ojikutu said city health officials have started developing a plan for how to reinstitute the mask mandate, if necessary. Mask-wearing is the “first line of defense” when the risk of COVID infection rises, according to Ojikutu.
Overall, the community positivity rate is currently at 2.5 percent, down 2.9 percentage points from the last two weeks, according to Ojikutu’s presentation. Positive tests results are down 23 percent from the previous week, and COVID hospitalizations for adults are down 28 percent.
Ojikutu also provided updates on the percentage of fully vaccinated individuals by neighborhood. As of Feb. 22, Mattapan continued to have the lowest vaccination rate at 56.8 percent.
The South End had the highest with 83.4 percent. Dorchester was just under 70 percent. The city’s overall vaccination rate was at 72.1 percent.
On Friday, Feb. 18, city officials lifted the requirement for people to show proof of vaccination at indoor spaces, due to the downward trend of COVID metrics.
Taken together, the lifting of the proof of vaccination requirement and the mask mandate indicate the end of the coronavirus surge that hit the state hard in the last few months.
A day before the board of health met, City Councillor At-Large Erin Murphy filed a home rule petition calling for the reform of the body. The petition says the board did not meet enough during the pandemic and did not have public hearings when mandates were first instituted.
Murphy said the board should be mandated to meet at least monthly in public when there isn’t a public health emergency, and at least weekly when there is one.
The home rule petition — which needs the approval of the City Council, mayor, state Legislature and the governor before it becomes law — would also add two people to the seven-member board, including an emergency medical technician or paramedic.
The proposal also allows the City Council to vote on a citywide state of emergency if it goes past 90 days.
Murphy said the 13-member City Council didn’t get a say in the board of health’s moves. “I am asking to start the conversation,” she said of her proposal.
