GoRaleigh, GoDurham drop COVID mask mandates but still urge bus riders to wear them
GoRaleigh and GoDurham say they recommend but no longer require that riders wear masks on their buses to curb the spread of the coronavirus, after a federal judge ruled a national mask mandate on public transit was invalid.
Other transit systems in the Triangle, including GoTriangle, have not yet announced new policies in light of the decision, which was quickly embraced by travelers nationwide.
The Biden administration said late Monday that it would stop enforcing the transportation mask mandate, after a federal judge in Florida nullified the 14-month-old order, saying it exceeded the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s authority.
The fallout was swift. Raleigh-Durham International Airport announced Monday evening that masks would be optional in its terminals, and all major U.S. airlines said the same is true on their planes.
Amtrak, which operates several trains in North Carolina, including the state-owned Piedmont, said while people were welcome to wear masks as “an important preventative measure against COVID-19,” they are no longer required on trains or in stations.
Triangle transit agencies were slower to respond. After researching its options, GoRaleigh concluded that without the federal mandate it no longer has the authority to require passengers to wear masks, said spokeswoman Andrea Epstein. State and local emergency orders that supported the mask mandate in 2020 have expired.
GoRaleigh will still encourage drivers and passengers to wear masks and will make them available on all buses and at GoRaleigh’s downtown station.
“We’re going to make sure everybody has a mask that wants a mask,” Epstein said.
GoCary is taking the same approach, as is GoDurham, said city spokeswoman Beverly Thompson.
“GoDurham management is not actively enforcing a mask mandate at this point, but is continuing to make masks available and to encourage their use,” Thompson wrote in an email.
The court ruling caught many transit officials by surprise and forced them to evaluate their policies, rather than simply cite the federal mandate. By day’s end Tuesday, Chapel Hill Transit had decided to keep its face-covering requirements in place to help keep employees, riders and the community safe, said Brian Litchfield, the director.
“We will continue to evaluate this and provide updates to our customers and communities,” Litchfield wrote in an email. “We understand that our customers may have mixed feelings about this, and we ask that everyone continue to do their part to keep our operators and communities safe and to be respectful of others.”
Mask mandates predate federal order
Airports, airlines, Amtrak and local transit agencies all began requiring employees and passengers to cover their faces long before the federal government’s mandate went into effect on Feb. 2, 2021. GoRaleigh began requiring drivers and riders to don masks in June 2020, under a city COVID-19 emergency declaration.
At the time, masks were part of a broader strategy that included social distancing and more thorough cleaning that aimed to make travelers safer and feel more comfortable being around other people.
But after the latest wave of COVID-19 cases subsided this winter, state and local governments began scaling back their pandemic response and lifting requirements that people wear masks indoors. In late March, CEOs of the country’s major airlines urged President Joe Biden to lift both the mask mandate and a requirement that travelers test negative for the coronavirus before boarding international flights to the U.S.
“We are encouraged by the current data and the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions from coast to coast, which indicate it is past time to eliminate COVID-era transportation policies,” they wrote.
The mask mandate was set to expire several times, most recently on April 18, before the CDC extended it again to May 3. The agency noted that COVID-19 cases had started to rise again in early April and said it wanted more time to determine the potential impact on the health care system.
“We feel, still feel, that is entirely reasonable, based on the latest science,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday. “Public health decisions shouldn’t be made by the courts. They should be made by public health experts.”
The Biden administration appealed the judge’s ruling Wednesday, after the CDC determined the mandate was “necessary” under federal law to prevent the spread of a communicable disease.
One exception to the lifting of a mask mandate at RDU is Air Canada. The airline, which flies two nonstops from RDU and Toronto each day and is scheduled to resume flights to Montreal in June, still requires passengers to wear masks on its planes, said spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick.
“Throughout the pandemic, Air Canada has advocated for a science-based approach to ensure safety,” Fitzpatrick wrote in an email. “We continue to monitor the situation and, as we have throughout the pandemic, we will adjust our requirements as measures evolve.”
This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 7:05 PM.
