UDPATED: County mask mandate scheduled to go back into effect on Wednesday – BethesdaMagazine.com

This story was updated at 8:10 p.m. Oct. 30, 2021, with new information about an indoor mask mandate being reinstated.

Montgomery Countys indoor mask mandate will be reinstated Wednesday unless the County Council, acting as the Board of Health, votes to change it Tuesday, according to the countys acting health officer.

On Saturday, James Bridgers, the acting health officer, sent a memo to County Council leadership and County Executive Marc Elrich. The notice says that because the county has entered substantial transmission, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, the mask mandate would be reinstated, unless the Board of Health acts.

Effective November 3 at 12:01 a.m., subject to possible action by the Board of Health, all persons in Montgomery County over the age of two must wear a face covering in any location accessible to the public, Bridgers wrote, noting that there are exceptions to the mask mandate.

Those exceptions include:

The state reported 108 new positive cases of the coronavirus in Montgomery County on Saturday morning, which has the county in substantial transmission for the second straight day.

Senior officials said this week that the countys indoor mask mandate would be reinstated if the county sees just one day of substantial transmission.

An indoor mask mandate was lifted at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, after the county reported seven straight days of moderate transmission.

But County Council Vice President Gabe Albornoz told Bethesda Beat Friday evening that he and his colleagues were waiting on an order from Bridgers.

Council members passed the Board of Health order in early August, reinstating the mandate.

It was initially unclear on Friday whether the mask mandate would be reinstated by that Tuesday meeting, if at all. Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Earl Stoddard told Bethesda Beat on Friday the mandate would likely not be reinstated over the weekend.

Stoddard did not immediately respond to a voicemail left on his cellphone Saturday morning.

Per CDC guidelines, substantial transmission is 50 to 99.99 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, over a seven-day period. Moderate transmission is defined as 10 to 49.99 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, over a seven-day period.

The county enters substantial transmission when it hits 50 cases or more per 100,000 people, calculated over a seven-day period. As of Saturday evening, the countys rate is listed as 53.3.

County Council Member Andrew Friedson wrote in a text message on Saturday that he had been working on proposing potential changes to the Board of Health order before the county entered substantial transmission on Friday.

Both he and Albornoz said the proposed changes to the Board of Health order are meant to avoid a yo-yo effect of the mask mandate being lifted and reinstated multiple times in a short time frame.

County officials have previously said they need to confirm state and local data with CDC data before determining which state of transmission the county is in, so there is a delay in making pronouncements, even after new numbers are released.

According to the CDC, 91.1% of the countys eligible population those 12 years and older are fully vaccinated, as of Saturday. Of the total population, 77.3% are fully vaccinated, and 85.8% had received at least one dose of a vaccine.

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UDPATED: County mask mandate scheduled to go back into effect on Wednesday - BethesdaMagazine.com