Pima County Mask Requirement Expires, CDC Still Advises Masking

TUCSON, AZ — Pima County's indoor mask mandate expired Monday, but even after changing its metrics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still recommends that locals wear masks indoors.

In addition to the COVID-19 case counts that the old guidance used, the new guidance also uses hospital bed utilization and hospital admissions to determine community risk level. But the new guidance still places Pima County in at a "high" risk level, for which the CDC still recommends masking.

Under the new guidance, around 70 percent of Americans can shed their masks while indoors, including those in Maricopa and Santa Cruz counties, which are both now in the medium risk level.

The CDC does not recommend masking for communities at medium and low risk levels, but advises that people in those communities who are at high risk for severe disease consult with their doctor when deciding whether to go unmasked. The CDC also advises masking for people who have tested positive for COVID-19, have symptoms of the disease or were exposed to someone with COVID-19, no matter what their community risk level.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors re-implemented a mask mandate in December, when cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19 were rising sharply. The mandate required masking indoors when social distancing wasn't possible.

The board voted 3-2 on Feb. 15 against extending the face mask requirement for another month, allowing it to expire after Monday, Feb. 28. Voting in favor of the extension were Vice Chair Adelita Grijalva and Supervisor Matt Heinz.

Reported case counts of COVID-19 in Pima County, along with the rest of Arizona and most of the U.S., have been dwindling since cases of the omicron variant peaked locally in mid-January. Pima County's daily case count has decreased from 3,491 cases reported Jan. 19, to 212 cases reported Feb. 22, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 in Pima County have also decreased from a recent high of 457 on Jan. 11 to 52 on Feb. 22, although some of that data can be lagging.