Brookline: If no mask, wear a face shield
Some skip mask on doctors’ orders
Face it: You can’t get out of wearing a mouth-covering in Brookline anymore.
The most populous town in Massachusetts is ordering even people who are “medically excluded” from the rules about wearing a mask in public to have an anti-coronavirus barrier — a plastic face shield.
“We are pleased with the level of cooperation with the existing face covering requirement,” Brookline Health Commissioner Dr. Swannie Jett said in a news release. “However, it is important to reinforce the need for a protective layer that limits the possibility of spreading the coronavirus — as a cloth face covering does — while ensuring people with medical limitations are protecting those around them from COVID-19 without jeopardizing their own wellness.”
The new rule requiring the medical-style face shield goes into effect Sept. 10, the town said.
Currently, the Brookline rules say that everyone is asked to wear a mask, but people have been able to get out of doing so under doctors’ orders. The town put the mask mandate in in
March, and the state later implemented its own — though it hasn’t required that people exempted have to gear up with the plastic shield.
Brookline’s numbers remain low for Massachusetts, with .5% positivity as of the state’s weekly report on Wednesday.
The daily case rate over the previous two weeks nudged up from 1.7 cases a day per 100,000 residents from 1 the previous week, but it remains below the state average of 4.