Outdoor mask rules may be relaxed soon
South Floridians may finally be able to peel off their masks and more calmly breathe the warm air.
President Joe Biden is expected to announce Tuesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its guidance for wearing masks outdoors. The update likely will factor in new studies about the low risk of getting COVID outdoors.
In South Florida, some cities and counties have loosened outdoor COVID restrictions and mask-wearing requirements, but updated CDC guidance will clarify what the scientists recommend.
Expectations are that the CDC will give separate recommendations on outdoor mask wearing for fully vaccinated people and those who have not received a coronavirus vaccine — likely saying mask-wearing outside is unnecessary but outlining high-risk situations when they truly are needed.
Current CDC guidance
says that anyone older than 2 should wear a mask in “public settings and when around people who don’t live in their household.”
“We now know your risk of infection outside is really minimal,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, said during a town hall on Monday. “If you are vaccinated and outside, it’s even less of a risk, and we can make policies based on that.”
Florida has not had an outdoor mask mandate during the pandemic, although some counties and cities did have one. Palm Beach County, for example, is grappling with whether to keep its mask mandates in place.
New research shows COVID-19 is much less transmissible outdoors than indoors. A November review in the Journal of Infectious Diseases found that the odds of transmitting COVID-19 are 18.7 times greater indoors than out, and less than 10% of the studied infections happened outside.
Beachgoers, park users, and outdoor bar patrons in some areas already have tossed their masks.
With 50% of its residents vaccinated, Broward County has given its residents the green light to do so. The county relaxed its outdoor COVID restrictions this month, allowing people to go without masks at outdoor gatherings, golf courses, community pools, and poolside bars.
“We are following the science,” said Broward County Mayor Steve Geller. “The only time you need to wear a mask in Broward County is if you are in line in a very crowded area, like at a bar.”
Palm Beach County has extended its mask mandate until May 18. Palm Beach County health director Dr. Alina Alonso told county commissioners: “What matters is how much virus is in the community. That’s when we can take [masks] off. And it probably will not be for a long time.”
Fauci, at Monday’s town hall sponsored by the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, said taking masks off outside is less worrisome with more than 141 million people in the country receiving at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
He said could see the U.S. returning to “a strong degree of normality” by the end of the year. However, he said that will depend on vaccine acceptance and the threat of variants from other parts of the world.