County Says Goodbye to COVID Masks
The Chaffee Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) agreed to began its transition back to in-person meetings on Tuesday, voting unanimously to allow fully in-person meetings beginning in April and dropping the facemask mandate in county facilities. It has been working in primarily virtual mode since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The BOCC also elected not to amend or extend the latest County Public Health Order (2020-08 Amendment 28) and thus it was allowed to expire on its set February 28, 2022 end date. Finally, the BOCC also retired the County’s Emergency Declaration, a week prior to its planned March 8, 2022 expiration.
During the discussion, it was pointed out that the county’s March public hearings have already been noticed as virtual meetings, causing Commissioner Rusty Granzella to amend his motion to allow for the month of March to continue as virtual meetings via Zoom as it transitions back to in-person sessions.
Beginning in April, County meetings will return to a hybrid in-person and Zoom format and the County will notice its meetings accordingly with those details. While the pandemic situation has vastly improved, so many governments and business entities who have adapted during the pandemic that continuing in a hybrid format is widely accepted.
State public health officials have told the public that while the state is in good condition at this point, with COVID-19 cases falling, no one knows what coming months and future variants might bring.
The quick and unanimous motion by the BoCC was almost anti-climatic, after the turmoil of the past two years.
This decision aligns with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) current masking guidance and is in the spirit of Colorado’s recently issued Roadmap to Moving Forward, which moves the state from more active pandemic response to a maintenance phase that normalizes the ways we live with COVID, particularly for fully vaccinated individuals. A press release issued from Chaffee County Public Health addresses additional impacts of the current guidance; read the full update from CCPH at bit.ly/CCPHMarch1.
However, the original motion made no mention of facemasks. This caused Chaffee County Public Health Director Andrea Carlstrom to ask for clarification of whether this move would include a modification of the current face mask mandates in county buildings. “I’m confused — what about the masking – does this include that? If so we can take down the massive amount of signage about masking in the Touber Building.”
Commissioners looked surprised and then confirmed that they would drop the mandatory facemask requirement in county buildings, but would surely support any individual’s decision to wear a mask in their buildings.
“We need a statement saying we fully support any individuals, organization or business that wants to continue to require masking,” said Carlstrom, who has often pointed out that the transition from pandemic mindset to an endemic response will take some adjustment time.
Tuesday’s BOCC decisions were made with the understanding that public health measures will continue to be assessed on an ongoing basis and may be reinstated if future COVID variants or another communicable disease present a significant threat to the public.
County leadership is encouraging Chaffee residents to continue to take personal actions, including COVID-19 vaccination and booster shots and staying home when ill, which will help keep COVID transmission rates lower in our community and keep active cases at a manageable level.
In a conversation with Carlstrom later in the day, she said that after so many months of restrictions and lockdowns reaching this point on March 1, 2022, where the county officially and literally “takes off its masks”, is almost hard to get used to. She added that Chaffee County setting a path back to regular in-person meetings is a major step toward “normal.”
“I left that [BoCC] meeting this morning feeling just joy — to finally reach this point — it feels so good,” said Carlstrom. “We should enjoy this reprieve. We should connect with people. Soon the littlest children will be able to be vaccinated. We have the tools now. We don’t know if we’ll see variants, we don’t know what might come, but now we are in a good place.”
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