Lexington Issues Indoor Mask Mandate Starting August 18

LEXINGTON, MA — All indoor public spaces in Lexington will require a facial covering starting Wednesday, August 18 at 12:01 a.m.

This decision came after a meeting on Thursday, August 12 where the Board of Health adopted a public health mandate regulating face coverings in indoor public spaces in Lexington with support from the Select Board.

This mandate does not apply to outdoor spaces.

Some components of the mandate include:

• Foodservice establishment customers may only remove face coverings when seated.
• Fitness Centers/Health Clubs workers, customers, and visitors are required to wear face coverings during fitness activity, including strenuous activity.
• At Personal Services establishments, including, but not limited to, barbershops, hair and nail salons, all customers and workers are required to wear face coverings, except for skin or beard care that occurs on the face, where the customer may temporarily remove the face covering but must immediately put the face-covering back on for the remainder of the visit.

This mandate includes houses of worship, or private spaces open to the public, except where a person is unable to wear a face-covering due to a medical condition or disability.

This mandate will be reviewed on or by November 5, 2021.

The highly transmissible delta variant is pushing an increase in COVID-19 cases both locally and nationally, causing a growing number of Massachusetts communities to re-issue an indoor mask mandate.

Salem, Danvers, Swampscott, Provincetown, Wakefield, Melrose, Worcester, Belmont, Brookline, Nantucket, Wellfleet are some of the other communities who have voted to reinstate indoor mask mandates.

Read Lexington's full public health mandate here.