Wakefield's Mask Mandate Could End Sooner Than Expected As Meeting Moved Up

WAKEFIELD, MA — Town health officials are moving up the meeting to discuss whether to drop the indoor mask mandate as other communities make the move amid declining COVID-19 cases.

The meeting will be scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 16, a month earlier than the initial March 16 date, Health Director Anthony Chui told Patch.

Chui is also the health director in Melrose, where the Board of Health on Tuesday voted to rescind its indoor mask mandate effectively immediately. In that case, Chui said the mandate, which went into effect Jan. 2, served its purpose in helping to prevent even more cases.

Wakefield's mask mandate has been in effect since Jan. 9.

Since then, the two-week positive test rate has dropped from nearly 21 percent to 12 percent, while the two-week case count dropped from 991 to 351. The current numbers are still very high, but the prevalence of vaccines has framed the fight against the pandemic differently than even this time last year.

Chui in the Melrose meeting said other metrics must also be considered, noting there are very few available ICU beds at nearby hospitals like MelroseWakefield, Winchester, Lahey and Mass. General.

"We are not out of the woods yet," he said. "And we will keep an eye on the data to make sure that we continue to make evidence-based decisions."

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi and Instagram at Melrose Happening. Subscribe to Melrose Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.