Wake County, Raleigh to lift mask mandate. Durham and Orange keeping it for now
Two Triangle counties are keeping their mask mandates in place for now, while one county says it will lift its requirements next week.
Wake County and Raleigh leaders announced on Friday they will stop requiring masks to be worn inside public spaces starting Friday, Feb. 25.
The decision comes after Durham and Orange county leaders said they would keep their requirements in place and continue to evaluate them in the coming weeks.
On Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper said he is encouraging local governments and school districts to end their masking requirements for a variety of reasons. That includes easy access to vaccines and boosters and the current dominant omicron variant generally causing less severe illness.
“People know how to gauge their level of risk and decide how to best protect themselves,” Cooper said.
Things have changed in recent weeks, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said in an interview Thursday.
“We have vaccines and boosters. The rates are going way down,” Baldwin said. “I think people are feeling a lot better about where we are.”
Wake County
As the delta variant of COVID-19 sent cases and hospitalizations soaring in August, Wake County and the City of Raleigh enacted indoor mask mandates. Five towns — Garner, Knightdale, Morrisville, Rolesville and Zebulon — signed onto the county’s mandate and have so far remained a part of it.
The towns said they will drop their mandates Friday as well.
On Friday, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin confirmed to The News & Observer that both the county and city would lift their respective mandates on Feb. 25.
The town of Cary, which also enacted an indoor mask mandate in August, ended its face covering requirement in late October due to falling rates of infection, the N&O previously reported.
Five towns opted against joining the county’s mandate last August, and have not required masks in indoor public spaces since then. They are: Apex, Fuquay-Varina, Holly Springs, Wake Forest and Wendell.
Durham County
Durham County Board of Commissioners Chair Brenda Howerton and Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal announced Thursday that the rules would not change for now.
“We are so close to the place where we can safely begin to resume our pre-COVID activities such as shopping and dining at our favorite places,” Howerton said in the release. “We ask for just a bit more patience to make sure we don’t have any changes to our positive metrics.”
The City of Durham as well as Durham County have required everyone over the age of 5 to wear a mask indoors since August.
In November, Howerton told The N&O that the county would need to see continuous levels of either moderate or low transmission, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, before the mandate could be lifted.
Orange County
Renee Price, the chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, told The N&O on Friday she had decided to keep the mask mandate in place.
The decision came after discussing the current COVID-19 situation in Orange County with the mayors of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, as well as Quintana Stewart, the county health director.
Orange County has required everyone over the age of 2 to wear a mask inside public spaces since August.
Price acknowledged on Friday that case numbers and the positivity rate in Orange County have declined, but said keeping the mandate in place for a few more weeks should ensure that those metrics continue to fall.
Officials considered their “community responsibility to minimize strain on UNC Hospital,” which serves the county and the broader Triangle region, Price said.
Officials also want to keep COVID spread as low as possible to protect children under 5 and adults who aren’t able to take vaccines, she added.
Price said mayors and other local stakeholders will meet in early March to revisit whether the mandate can safely be lifted. That includes representatives from the two school districts, UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as UNC Hospitals and first responders.
In the meantime, Price encouraged residents who haven’t gotten their vaccinations or boosters to do so.
“Most of the deaths and serious illnesses are among the unvaccinated,” she said. “Vaccines provide the strongest level of protection from serious illness or hospitalizations due to COVID-19.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 2:08 PM with the headline "Wake County, Raleigh to lift mask mandate. Durham and Orange keeping it for now."
