Shaker Heights Drops Mask Requirement At City Facilities

SHAKER HEIGHTS, OH — Employees and visitors will no longer be required to wear masks inside Shaker Heights municipal buildings.

The city announced the policy change on Thursday, following the lead of the Shaker Heights Schools and revised guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The revised mask policy applies to municipal spaces like City Hall, the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Community Building and Thornton Park.

"Individuals may choose to mask at any time and we will continue to provide masks at the reception desks of City buildings. In recognition, that each individual’s circumstances and health conditions are different, please be respectful of others who prefer to be masked," the city said in a statement.

Shaker Heights Schools loosened its district-wide mask policies on March 1, making face masks optional for students, staff and visitors.

As the second anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic approaches, Ohio is experiencing a swift and dramatic decline in new cases and hospitalizations. And after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised their guidance, recommendations to mask indoors have been dropped for most Ohioans.

The Ohio Hospital Association reports that COVID-19 patient levels have dropped 64 percent statewide in the past three weeks, and are down 84 percent in the past two months.