(Photo/Dakota Antelman)
SHREWSBURY – Shrewsbury’s indoor mask mandate may be coming to an end in the near future.
The Board of Health will be meeting on Feb. 15.
“At that time, I anticipate them reconsidering the mask mandate in public building spaces and businesses,” Town Manager Kevin Mizikar said during a Board of Selectmen meeting earlier this week.
The agenda for that meeting, which was released on Friday morning, does include an item to “review and act on rescinding” the mask mandate.
If Shrewsbury does lift its mandate, it will join neighboring communities including Westborough, Northborough, Marlborough, Southborough and Grafton.
Across Lake Quinsigamond, Worcester has also voted to lift its mask mandate, effective on Feb. 18.
Mizikar said the town has received “a lot of inquiries,” particularly following Worcester’s action.
Shrewsbury, he said, wouldn’t need as long of a lead time to lift the mandate.
He said that, if Shresbury were to follow in Worcester’s footsteps on Feb. 18, its mandate “may go away on a consistent timing with the City of Worcester’s initiative.”
He reported that there had been 112 COVID-19 in the seven days before his comments to the Selectmen at their meeting, which took place on Feb. 8.
That marked a decrease from the height of the recent COVID-19 case surge, which saw close to 800 cases in a single week at one point, according to Mizikar.
“We’re very grateful that we’re seeing these numbers improve,” Mizikar said .
Additionally, Mizikar announced that Town Hall will reopen for normal business without an appointment on Monday, Feb. 14.
Shrewsbury implemented its mask mandate back in October.
As COVID-19 cases were rising in early January, it then announced that Town Hall would only be open to the public by appointment.
“We’re very happy to welcome the public back in without appointment,” Mizikar said.
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