Wake County, Raleigh to drop indoor mask mandates. Here’s when the requirements end.
Updated Feb. 23, 2022: Morrisville announced it will drop its mandate on Feb. 25 to align with Wake County.
Wake County and the City of Raleigh will stop requiring people to wear masks inside public spaces beginning Friday, Feb. 25, officials said Friday.
The announcement by county and city leaders comes a day after Gov. Roy Cooper encouraged local governments to lift their mask mandates, citing the widespread availability of vaccines and boosters, and the lower risk of severe illness from the omicron variant.
Separate indoor mask mandates have been in effect in Wake County and Raleigh since August, when the delta variant was causing a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
Garner, Knightdale, Rolesville and Zebulon, four towns that had signed onto the county’s mandate last August and have remained a part of it, will also lift requirements for their residents, officials said in a news release.
Leaders of Morrisville, the fifth town that joined the county’s mandate, said they would consult with the full council before making a decision. Wednesday, the town announced it would drop the mandate on Friday as well to align with the rest of the county.
“We initially put this mandate in place to weather the worst of the COVID-19 storm, which we hope is now behind us,” said Sig Hutchinson, chair of the Wake County Board of Commissioners.
Officials noted Friday that employers can mandate masks on their premises if they wish, and encouraged people to make choices that are best suited to their circumstances.
Earlier this month, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin met with Hutchinson and the county’s public health staff to discuss whether the county was in a place where it could lift masking requirements.
At the time, she said, officials would wait another two weeks before deciding what to do about the mandate, which she acknowledged was frustrating for some people nearly two years into the pandemic.
The COVID situation in Raleigh and throughout the rest of the county has changed since then, Baldwin told The News & Observer in an interview Thursday.
“We have vaccines and boosters. The rates are going way down,” she said. “I think people are feeling a lot better about where we are.”
Hospitalizations in Wake have fallen by nearly 54% since cases peaked at the height of omicron surge in January, officials said. As of now, a total of 190 people are hospitalized with the virus in the county.
Vaccination rates, on the other hand, are up. Of Wake residents 12 and older, 89% have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the county.
Lifting the mandate “gives room for personal choice and responsibility,” Baldwin said in the release on Friday, adding that those who are health compromised or more comfortable keeping their masks on “should feel empowered to do so.”
Officials continue to recommend mask-wearing for anyone who:
▪ Is at risk for severe disease including the elderly or people with underlying medical conditions.
▪ Isn’t fully vaccinated.
▪ Attends a large indoor gathering.
▪ Lives or works in high-risk settings like hospitals and nursing homes.
▪Uses public transportation, depending on federal guidance.
Some Wake County buildings may continue to require employees and visitors to wear masks in certain rooms.
Elsewhere in the Triangle, Durham and Orange county leaders said they would keep their requirements in place and continue to evaluate them in the coming weeks.
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This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 2:28 PM.
