Wake County extends mask mandate until lower levels of community spread reached
Wake County is extending its mask mandate, which is set to expire on Nov. 1, until the county reaches lower levels of community spread, officials announced Friday.
The county enacted a mandate Aug. 18 that requires face coverings to be worn indoors in businesses and public spaces, in light of rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the region and throughout the state, due to the more contagious delta variant.
Officials acknowledged on Friday that “the late summer COVID-19 surge is waning” but said Wake isn’t yet ready to lift its mandate since community transmission of the virus in the county is still high, according to a nationwide tracker from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The towns of Garner, Knightdale, Morrisville, Rolesville and Zebulon are continuing their participation in the county’s mandate.
A separate mandate for Raleigh, which the city put into place indefinitely in August, also remains in effect, according to Wake.
Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin told The News & Observer this week that Raleigh will refrain from relaxing requirements until the county decides to do so, in order to “be consistent in our message.”
Cary, which also enacted its own mask mandate in August, became the first town to lift requirements on Thursday. As of Friday, Oct. 29, masks are no longer required inside public spaces or town-operated facilities.
Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said he based his decision to lift the mandate on “falling rates of COVID-19 infection” in the county, and said he was encouraged that 75% of Wake’s total population had received at least one dose of a vaccine.
About 68% of the county’s total population remains under masking requirements for the foreseeable future, including Wake’s extended mandate that applies to the county’s unincorporated areas, Raleigh and the five towns aligned with Wake.
Community spread
The CDC determines community spread based on two metrics: the percentage of COVID tests returning positive, and the number of daily cases per 100,000 people, over the past seven days.
Dr. José Cabañas, Wake County’s chief medical officer, noted that although Wake has a low positivity rate of 3.45%, community spread is still considered high.
“We need to see that drop to a moderate level before we can recommend lifting the mask mandate,” Cabañas said in a release.
In order for that to happen, daily cases per 100,000 people would need to drop below 50, from their current level of 104, and would need to stay at that level for at least seven days.
And although moderate transmission requires a positivity rate under 8%, the new declaration signed by Wake County Board of Commissioners Chair Matt Calabria says the percentage of positive tests needs to stay under 5% (the threshold for low transmission) for the mandate to be lifted.
Vaccines are expected to be authorized for children between the ages of 5 and 11 in the coming days, which will officials have said will protect a new population of people susceptible to getting COVID-19.
Mandate could be lifted ‘in a few weeks’
Wake officials said they are aware many people who have “mask fatigue” continue to wear face coverings to protect themselves and others.
A link to the CDC’s tracker of Wake County’s level of community transmission has been added to the county’s COVID-19 website, which Calabria said will “empower our residents to monitor the same data our public health experts are analyzing, so we’ll all know when it’s safe to lift the mask mandate in the future.”
The county’s public health team expects Wake will meet the metrics required to lift the mask mandate “in a few weeks,” the release stated.
But even as the county is trending in the right direction, county public health officials said they remain concerned about the long-term effects of contracting the virus, or “long COVID.”
Dr. Nicole Mushonga, the county’s associate medical director, said in a statement that some COVID patients have continued to experience health issues weeks and months after they recovered from their bouts with the virus.
“It’s one of the many reasons why wearing a mask and not spreading the virus is so critical to our community’s overall success at bouncing back from the pandemic,” Mushonga said.
Like Wake, Durham County continues to have high community transmission. The county is keeping its mask mandate intact indefinitely until the county sees sustained levels of either moderate or low transmission, said Brenda Howerton, chair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners.
As of Oct. 28, Orange County is the only Triangle county where transmission is not high, but is one level lower, at substantial. The county’s mask mandate also is in place indefinitely.
The county’s mandate will likely remain in place “as long as the need for strong mitigation measures continues,” said county spokesperson Todd McGee.
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This story was originally published October 29, 2021 at 1:16 PM.
