As COVID-19 transmission is expected to continue receding in Pima County, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to resume meeting in person and to rescind the mask mandate for county-owned facilities.
On March 15, the county’s supervisors plan to meet in person for the first time since December 2020.
The change comes as the CDC suggested on Friday that communities should now decide on easing masking requirements based on the criteria: COVID-19 case rates below 200 per 100,000 residents, with fewer than 20 new COVID hospital admissions per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period, and less than 15% of hospital beds being used by COVID patients.
Pima County was not meeting that threshold as of Tuesday, according to the CDC, but is expected to reach it by the end of this week. The countywide mask mandate the board approved in late December amid the omicron surge expired on Monday.
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“I can’t tell you for certain that by Friday we will be in the yellow,†Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francisco Garcia told the board, referring to the level of community transmission the CDC now classifies as “medium†and doesn’t suggest universal masking in public. “But I believe that there is a high likelihood that before our next meeting that we may be there.â€
With this information, the board voted 3-2 to begin meeting in person, starting with its March 15 meeting. However, it was assumed at the time that supervisors wouldn’t have to wear masks.
“We are going to be assuming we’re not in the high transmission phase. Should we still be in the high transmission phase, we’ll probably have to revisit that,†said board Chair Sharon Bronson, who made the motion to return to in-person meetings.
The board also voted 3-2 to rescind the mask mandate in county facilities starting March 11 “based on justifiable numbers and information,†Supervisor Steve Christy said in his motion for the item. Christy has previously stipulated he will only return to in-person meetings if he’s not required to wear a mask.
Supervisors Adelita Grijalva and Matt Heinz rejected both motions amid the uncertainty of masking protocols.
The mask mandate for county-owned buildings, which was put in place by administrative directive at the beginning of the pandemic, was already set to be demoted to a mask recommendation by March 11, according to acting County Administrator Jan Lesher.
“Rather than simply eliminating it, it will be a little more specific. Most public buildings will not require a mask,†Lesher said. “But we’re keeping in mind that because of who we are as a county, we have health clinics, we have pediatric clinics ... there are places such as that, that we will continue to require a mask so that’s what we’re just working through now.â€
The rescission of the mask mandate for county buildings, however, depends on if transmission factors drop to a level where the CDC says masks aren’t recommended indoors. If that doesn’t happen, board members and attendees will be required to mask at the supervisors’ in-person meetings, according to Lesher.
“If we’re going to still require everyone in our county buildings to wear masks, we shouldn’t be an exemption, we should all just wear masks. I don’t think it’s a very big deal,†Grijalva said.
The board has rescinded county-wide mask mandates twice as COVID-19 transmission has waned and spiked again with the emergence of new variants.
“We have pretty much called the pandemic over on more than one occasion over the last couple of years. And we want to make sure that we have some safety belt language in place when we can come back to the board should we for any reason see another variant or another spike at some point in the future,†Lesher told the board. “But our goal is to get past what I think we’ve all recognized as a very contentious point of discussion and allow us to focus simply on continuing to talk about the various health requirements related to the pandemic.â€
