Brookline health officials reinstate mask mandate
A new public health order in Brookline begins today and it is all thanks to rising COVID-19 numbers.
Brookline’s mask mandate only covers town-owned properties, but Brookline businesses can still require masks according to town health officials.
Part of the reason this decision was made is because Norfolk County where Brookline is located has one of the Commonwealth’s higher confirmed case counts at 142,846 per state data, including 4,895 cases in just the last 14 days.
Brookline’s Director of Public Health and Human Services outlines some of these venues where masks are once again required at all Brookline Public schools, the library, the Senior Center and Town Hall
Noting in recent weeks – the Centers for Disease Control or CDC has identified Norfolk, Suffolk and Middlesex counties as clusters of high transmission areas when it comes to COVID-19.
Additionally, a local advisory council reviewed and compared COVID case data between Brookline public schools with other Massachusetts districts that failed to lift mask requirements and determined this temporary return of a mask mandate is a necessary mitigation measure to limit disease spread and reduce absenteeism.
Town officials will be reviewing the numbers weekly and the mask mandate will be lifted “once Norfolk County drops to the CDC moderate or low COVID-19 risk levels or Brookline specific data suggests we are no longer in a surge,” stated Sigalle Reiss, MPH, RS/REHS Brookline’s Director of Public Health.
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