Public Health Madison & Dane County will no longer require face coverings in public indoor spaces in light of steadily decreasing COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations, PHMDC said in a release Monday.
“Today, cases have fallen to a seven-day average of 340 cases, less than 25% of peak levels and are continuing to decline,” PHMDC noted. “Hospitalizations are also down substantially to a seven-day average of 110, which is 44% lower than the peak 7-day average of hospitalizations in January 2022 caused by Omicron.”
“Letting the face-covering order expire doesn’t mean that the pandemic is over. Rather, it signals that we have made it through the Omicron surge and are entering a new stage of the pandemic,” said Janel Heinrich, Director of Public Health Madison & Dane County, in a statement. “The most important thing you can do now is to stay up-to-date on our vaccines as they have proven to be highly effective in protecting you from becoming severely ill, ending up in the hospital, or dying from COVID-19.”
Dane County’s public health order expiration does not affect the federal requirement for face coverings on public transportation including public transit networks, airplanes, buses and school buses, trains, taxis, Ubers and Lyfts.
