Monroe County’s board of health plans to let the local mask mandate expire with Governor Eric Holcomb’s emergency order on March 4.
Board member Mark Norrell said Thursday the state’s metrics were not the best for determining when to revoke the mandate. He said they did not match the transmissibility of the Omicron variant and were created with previous ones in mind.
“I'm a little leery of tying things to the old metrics, given our current situation and our trajectory,” Norrell said. “I can envision that under the Omicron, that maybe we would never see a blue [advisory level] again.”
The order is already set to expire if the county reaches a blue advisory level on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard. It is also set to expire if there is no state-wide emergency order to give it a legal basis. If the board wishes to continue the mandate, county commissioners will have to first issue a local emergency order.
Under Indiana law, the board can convene to recommend a new mask mandate to the commissioners with 48 hours’ notice.
“We can always change our minds if it appears that there's a new variant out there,” board member Dr. Carol Touloukian said.
The board did not take an official vote on changing the mandate during its regular meeting Thursday, but the next meeting is scheduled for March 3 at 4:30 p.m. The governor’s emergency order is expected to expire the next day.
Indiana University
IU announced Friday that instructors would be able to remove their masks starting Feb. 14. This reverts to how the school operated in fall 2021.
The Bloomington campus reported 69 new COVID-19 cases this week, down from 385 last week.
“Because of this, we are ending some of our explicit Omicron-extra guidance on campus and reverting much to what we looked like in the fall,” IU chief health officer Aaron Carroll said. “Because the numbers are returning to those levels once again.”
Carroll said IU would continue to test, contact trace, and offer isolation housing.
