Atlanta Mask Mandate Lifted; City Eviction Moratorium Remains

ATLANTA, GA – Atlanta’s indoor mask mandate has been lifted noting a change in the data used to guide the decisions of leaders enacting the restrictions.

Friday evening Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ office announced that the city was lifting a number of COVID-19 restrictions – primary among them the mask mandate – that had been in place since the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“Advances in life-saving vaccines, downward trends in cases and — most importantly — the vigilance and resilience of the Atlanta community have all brought us to this new space of hope,” Dickens said in the announcement. “As we continue to rely on data and science, Atlanta remains forever grateful for our public health professionals, our healthcare workers and our frontline workers who continue to give their all so that we may begin this optimistic path toward our new normal.”

The Mayor’s office also announced that the eviction moratorium would remain in place for residents funded through city agencies.

To justify dropping the masking mandate, city officials noted that 76 percent of Atlanta employees have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, and 55 percent of residents are vaccinated, city officials said.

That means meetings will resume for public agencies like Invest Atlanta, the Atlanta Housing Authority, or Atlanta Beltline, Inc., just to name a few. Work to the HVAC systems in city facilities has been done to provide improved circulation and address airborne particles, and modifications are being made to other public facilities. As a result, city agencies will begin to phase in the rental of public facilities to private groups.

But while the citywide mask mandate ends for most public indoor spaces, masks will still be required at public meetings and programs in City of Atlanta facilities.

The mask mandate went into effect after a state of emergency was established across the state in March 2020. Then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms soon found herself in a political fight with Gov. Brian Kemp, whose opposition to masking grew until in August 2021 he signed an executive order prohibiting mask mandates.

By December, as the nation was being overwhelmed by the delta variant of COVID-19, the citywide mask mandate had been relaxed and reinstated. Last week, Kemp introduced legislation called the “Unmask Georgia Students Act” aimed at outlawing in-school masking requirements.