Masks Mandate Reinstated in Gaithersburg City Buildings

GAITHERSBURG, MD — All staff and visitors in City of Gaithersburg buildings will again be required to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status. The city cited rises in community transmission as the reason for the move.

“The safety of our staff, residents and visitors is our paramount concern,” said City Manager Tanisha Briley. “Masking has proven very effective in reducing the spread of COVID-19. We encourage everyone to get vaccinated, and we will continue to do our part to reduce transmission by requiring indoor masking and physical distancing until such time as it is safe to remove these restrictions.”

The CDC recommended last week that people in areas of substantial or high transmission return to wearing masks, whether or not they have the vaccine. County Executive Marc Elrich proposed to the County Council last week that Montgomery County bring back the mask mandate for indoors if the community transmission level reaches "substantial."

There were 90 new cases reported in Montgomery County on Aug. 1, and 66 reported on Aug. 2. Substantial transmission — according to the CDC — is 50 to 99 cases per 100,000 residents for seven days. Montgomery County has 1.05 million residents, so there would need to be 75 new cases per day or 525 new cases over a seven-day period for the mask mandate to be reinstated, the county said in a news release.

The County Council will meet for a public hearing and vote on Thursday to decide on the recommendation.

"We have seen the daily number of new cases go up for more than two weeks and the majority of the new cases are the Delta variant, which is highly contagious," said Elrich in a statement. "While we have a high rate of vaccination in the community, health officials have determined that this variant is very easy to spread and we want to be sure that those in the community who aren't eligible to be vaccinated, such as children under the age of 12, are protected. No one wants to go back to wearing masks but in the absence of a 100 percent vaccination rate in the community, masking is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of the virus and protect the health of our community."