Masking Mandate Extended To Feb. 21 In Montgomery County
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — The Montgomery County Council extended the indoor mask mandate to Feb. 21 at its meeting Tuesday.
The council will meet weekly to look at COVID-19 data and determine if it should be ended earlier, the council said in a news release. The council and public health officer will look at the following data points when making a decision:
number of cases per 100,000 residents
test positivity rate
COVID-related hospital bed utilization case rate
Those three points will need to be below “high levels” and trending down for seven days, according to County Council documents.
“By continuing to work together, we are hopeful that we will contain this latest surge in cases next month,” said Council President Gabe Albnornoz. “Until then, we must continue the tried and true protections that we know help to limit community spread. These steps help protect our most vulnerable residents as well as our first responders, medical personnel and essential workers who continue to keep our community moving.”
The mask mandate had been scheduled to end on Jan. 31.
This article originally appeared on the Gaithersburg Patch