Masks Won't Be Required In Pima County Buildings As Of March 12

TUCSON, AZ — As of March 12, masking will be recommended but not required inside most county buildings, according to a news release from Pima County.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors decided last week to resume in-person board meetings after more than a year of virtual meetings.

Later that week, the county's risk designation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was downgraded from high to medium, meaning that the CDC no longer recommends universal indoor masking.

In accordance with the CDC's new recommendations, Acting County Administrator Jan Lesher revised Pima County's masking rules. The change means that as of March 12, masking is only recommended and not required inside most county buildings.

However, some select county facilities, like health clinics and those that serve populations particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, will still require masking.

Members of the public and board members will not be required to mask during board meetings, but everyone in the meeting room will be required to socially distance.

“We’ve been down this road before with Covid, where the disease seems to be receding and then it comes roaring back worse than before, so I’m relaxing these mitigation rules with cautious optimism,” Lesher said in a news release. “The County, like everyone else, needs to be vigilant about Covid and not consider the pandemic over. We may need to tighten the mitigation strategies again if there is another major spike.”
Around 90 percent of Pima County staff members have been vaccinated.
“I’m extremely proud of County staff and how they’ve done all we’ve asked to not only protect themselves and their families but also the greater Pima County community. They have led by example, and you can’t ask for much more than that from your workforce,” Lesher said.
Cases of COVID-19 in Pima County have dropped dramatically since the omicron variant peaked in January, according to information from the Arizona Department of Health Services.

During the week of Jan. 9 there were 17,922 cases of COVID-19 reported in Pima County, the most reported in one week since the start of the pandemic. During the week of Feb. 20, only 1,043 cases were reported in the county.