After saying it would maintain an indoor mask mandate until local COVID-19 trends dropped further, Orange County leaders revealed Tuesday the local government will soon rescind the measure.

Chair of the County Commissioners Renée Price revealed at Tuesday’s board meeting the county will lift its mandate on Monday, March 7. A release from the county government on Wednesday morning shared more details on the decision.

“I appreciate everything community members and businesses have done to lower the spread of COVID-19 in Orange County. These efforts have saved lives,” said Price in a statement. “We ask everyone to respect the decisions made by individuals who continue to wear masks, as well as the rules instituted at businesses, health care facilities and service providers.”

The county government has maintained a requirement for face coverings while indoors since August, implementing it ahead of the delta variant’s surge. Local elected officials and health experts said the measure helped mitigate the spread of the virus, which later had the more-contagious variant called omicron.

Recently, however, as COVID-19 trends fell following the variant’s peak, guidance from federal and state health experts shifted. On February 17, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper recommended local governments and school districts scale back their mask mandates by March 7, saying the pattern of COVID-19 trends warranted making masking optional. Cooper also shared on Tuesday that masks will become optional in state agencies on that same date.

Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control updated its guidance to Americans on Friday, February 25. With many states and local governments already moving away from mask mandates, the federal department shifted its recommendations from following the number of positive COVID-19 cases to instead measure the burden on local hospitals. The new federal recommendations do not change the requirement to wear masks on public transportation and indoors in airports, train stations and bus stations.

On February 18, Price and the mayors of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, shared they would not be immediately announcing plans to lift the indoor mask mandate. The group, however, all met with local health officials on Tuesday. Price said at Tuesday night’s board meeting, which was the Orange County commissioners’ first in-person business meeting in two years, the key COVID-19 trends in the county have now fallen below the levels for requiring masks.

Orange County Health Department Director Quintana Stewart shared some thoughts in the county’s release on Wednesday.

“While relaxing indoor masking requirements is a shift towards a ‘new normal’ of living with the disease,” she said, “people should continue to choose risk reduction strategies such as wearing well-fitted masks in high-risk settings; staying home and testing when symptomatic; testing before gatherings; and improving indoor ventilation. Staying up to date on vaccinations remains the most important way to prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death.”

The decision has ramifications for the schools in Orange County as well. Both Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools districts, as well as UNC in Chapel Hill, have required students to wear masks while indoors to limit the spread of COVID-19. Orange County Schools recently voted to lift its mask mandate for students 72 hours after the county government rescinded its measure. Tuesday’s announcement indicates the district is now on track for masks to be optional starting Thursday, March 10. UNC also announced it would be matching its mask requirements and guidance with the Orange County government’s.

With the UNC mask mandate lifted Monday, masks will become optional in classrooms, residence halls, offices, libraries, athletic venues and performance spaces. Research labs will also return to pre-pandemic mask requirements.

“This change comes at a time when we are seeing decreasing cases in our campus and local communities,” UNC leadership said in a campus message Wednesday. “We realize that this transition is welcome for some and brings discomfort for others. If you feel more comfortable still wearing a mask, you are free to do so. There are many reasons why a person may decide to continue to wear a mask, and we respect that choice. Conversely, students, faculty and staff should not be penalized if they do not wear a mask in their classroom or office setting where it is now optional.”

The Carolina Together Testing Center is also reducing hours. The center will remain open for symptomatic testing Mondays and Fridays from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. and Wednesdays from 7 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ Board of Education is set to meet on Thursday. Board members and district leaders have indicated the board will continue its pattern of voting during the first week of each month about mask requirements on school grounds.

As of Tuesday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reported hospitalizations due to COVID-19 are 1,543. The state is returning a 6.9 percent daily positive test rate, while it added around 21,000 total cases last week. Locally, the state health department reports 76% of Orange County community members are fully vaccinated with more than 68,000 have received of their booster shots.

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