MA Lifting All COVID-19 Restrictions May 29

BOSTON — Massachusetts will lift all remaining COVID-19 restrictions, including the mask mandate, two months earlier than planned in a move that appears to signify the end of the pandemic's grip on many residents' everyday lives.

Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday announced that on May 29 the state's mask mandate will be replaced with recent federal guidance that fully vaccinated people don't need to wear face coverings indoors or outdoors, with a few exceptions.

That day will also mark the end of all business, capacity and gathering limit restrictions in Massachusetts.

"The temporary limits and restrictions imposed on the private sector and on individuals were the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make," Baker said. "The loss and the isolation so many of our friends and families experienced is likely to impact all of us for a very long time."

Baker's state of emergency, put into effect March 10, will end June 15.

Masks won't be completely disappearing. Face coverings will still be mandated in a small number of places, such as nursing homes, hospitals, public and private transportation and schools, regardless of one's vaccination status.

Businesses will still have the option of requiring masks.

The state on Tuesday will drop the mask requirement for youth athletes playing outside and students at outdoor recess.

The state is on pace to hit its goal of fully vaccinating 4.1 million people by June, Baker said.

"Massachusetts is getting vaccinated faster than virtually every other state in the country," he said. "We've gotten to this point because we followed the science, and the people of Massachusetts did the hard work and made the sacrifices. We are now prepared and protected, and we can move forward together."

Baker's announcement Monday is the most significant non-vaccine-related update given since the very beginning of the pandemic. It comes one day shy of the year anniversary of his first reopening announcement.

Baker had recently said the state would be reopened by Aug. 1. That timeline was dramatically accelerated after the federal government's guidance last week that fully vaccinated people no longer needed to wear face coverings indoors or outdoors.

"I think for everybody in Massachusetts it's been a really, really, really long year," Baker said. "I think the challenges and the tragedies that have, in many cases, accompanied everything with COVID have been really rough on people."

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