05/14/2021
PA DOH ANNOUNCES MASKING UPDATE
Dear Members,
The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced yesterday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s updated guidance on masking for fully vaccinated people immediately goes into effect across the commonwealth.
The CDC earlier in the day said that fully vaccinated people no longer have to wear face coverings indoors or outdoors except in some circumstances, including health care settings and long-term care homes, on public transportation and at businesses that will still require them. The agency also removed the requirement for physical distancing of 6 feet in those situations.
People who have not been fully vaccinated, defined as two weeks after the single Johnson & Johnson or the two-shot Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna regimens, should still wear masks and follow physical distancing guidelines, the CDC said.
In a statement, Pennsylvania Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said the commonwealth’s amended mask order of March 16 included language that tied the state's mandate to the CDC's recommendations on face coverings.
“That means today’s CDC guidelines automatically go into effect in Pennsylvania,” the department said. “[The] masking requirement will still be in place for unvaccinated individuals until 70% of Pennsylvanians age 18 and older are fully vaccinated.”
Several weeks ago, in saying that most Covid-19 mitigation measures would be lifted on Memorial Day, Gov. Tom Wolf tied removing the mask mandate to the 70% vaccinated number. “This is another incentive to get the vaccine that is now easily and conveniently available,” Beam said in a statement. “Once 70% of Pennsylvanians over 18 are fully vaccinated, we can completely lift the masking order.”
