Town of Chapel Hill issued the following announcement on Mar. 10.
Earlier this week, Orange County announced that, as long as our COVID numbers keep going in the right direction, an amended mask order will go into effect Monday, March 7. As a result, masks will no longer be required—although recommended and appreciated—in most indoor, public spaces. This is an important next step for our community, and I want to provide everyone with an update on this decision and a few related matters.
First of all, I want to thank everyone for your hard work over these past two years. As Mayor, I have been proud of and grateful for the way our community has come together to prevent the spread of the virus, look out for one another, and protect our health care system and its workers.
Since February 18 when we announced that we would keep the mask mandate in place a little longer, Orange County has continued seeing our numbers decline for all three of the CDC’s indicators – hospital beds in use, new hospital admissions, and total number of new COVID cases for our area.
According to the CDC, as of March 3, Orange County’s percent-positivity is 3.93% for lab-reported tests, our case rate per 100,000 residents is 143, and there were 23 new hospitalization admissions. (CDC COVID-19 Data Tracker).
We know that this change will be concerning to many in our community – especially families with children under the age of 5 and individuals who are immunocompromised – who cannot be vaccinated and remain at a higher risk. Therefore, we ask that you continue to be kind and respectful of others so that everyone feels safe and comfortable when in public.
In moving forward together, we also know that COVID will continue to be with us and that we are all going to have to learn to live with it. This means that there will continue to be some places – including healthcare facilities and Chapel Hill Transit and regional buses – where masks will continue to be required to keep people safe.
It also, means that the health department will continue to monitor our trends to make sure we are following the CDC’s safety guidelines and staying within the medium- and low-risk levels as a community.
Now that we have reached this point, the Town Manager and I are working on logistics for returning to in-person Council meetings. Additionally, our staff is working on plans for fully opening Town facilities to the public. More information will be available soon.
Again, thank you all for your hard work. Even as we take this step, it remains important for each of us to stay vigilant and to use the tools at our disposal – masks, distancing, testing, and being outdoors – when they are warranted to keep ourselves and others safe.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Town of Chapel Hill
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