Updated February 28, 2022 at 3:30 PM.
Columbus Public Health announced today that it is recommending that the mask requirement in Columbus and Worthington end on March 7.
The current mask requirement must first be removed by Worthington City Council and Columbus City Council through legislative action and by Columbus Mayor’s executive order, but Columbus Public Health has announced the requirement will be lifted in seven days to "ensure the community maintains the new current level of disease burden and to give public and private entities time to adjust their policies and prepare for the shift."
"It's important that we hold on one more week, because we want to make sure that the scoring that we got from the CDC on Friday, which put us at medium community transmission or medium risk maintains itself, " said Columbus Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika Roberts.
Using a combination of factors set by CDC guidance determines the COVID-19 community Level in a county—low, medium or high. Franklin County is currently in the medium level which says that masks are not required.
"We don't want to pop up to high next week and be like, 'Oh, no, we removed the masks too soon.' So we want to see our community maintain that medium risk for a whole week, which will be almost two incubation periods, before we lift our mask order," said Roberts.
“The pandemic is not over, but the situation has changed, and we are in a new phase,” Roberts continued. “It is time to turn our efforts to minimizing the impact COVID-19 has on our health, our healthcare systems and our community, while focusing our efforts on protecting those who are most at risk of severe illness.”
Full text of announcement here: pic.twitter.com/5EZHEpGLRG
— Matthew Rand (@Matthew_Rand) February 28, 2022
"It's clear over the last few weeks, people are getting tired, and I think the compliance has dropped a lot over the last few weeks. But just hang on there one more week. We could do this, we can continue to wear our masks indoors, knowing that come March 7, we'll be able to put our masks away for some time, hopefully for good, but definitely for some time," said Roberts.
Columbus Public Health still encourages residents to continue to use all available tools to protect themselves from COVID-19 including vaccines, boosters and tests.
