State College Borough Council votes to tweak, extend COVID-19 ordinance. Here’s what changed
With vaccinations ramping up, State College has elected to loosen its COVID-19 ordinance.
The State College Borough Council voted unanimously Monday night to amend and extend the ordinance that covers mask wearing and gatherings until July 31, or until emergency declarations are rescinded by the state Department of Health or Centre Region Council of Governments. Among the changes include:
- Masking: In following guidelines for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the vaccinated, mask wearing is no longer required outside except in crowded areas. (It is still required to wear a mask indoors and on public transportation, regardless of vaccination status.)
- Waiting in lines: Lines, even in the borough’s public right of way, are once again allowed after being a violation for months if more than 10 people were waiting — although this part of the ordinance was often difficult to enforce. Those waiting in lines will still be required to wear masks but will not be required to social distance.
- Gatherings: Residences can now host up to 25 people inside or outside — an increase from 10 — while outdoor gatherings in parks and municipal property have been increased to 50 people, up from 25.
Gov. Tom Wolf announced last week that COVID mitigation orders would be lifted on Memorial Day, with the exception of mask wearing, and he said Tuesday that event gathering limits will be increased May 17, from a maximum capacity of 25% indoors to 50%, and from 50% outdoors to 75%. But the commonwealth will still allow municipalities such as State College to continue with more aggressive measures, like its current gathering limits.
The borough’s staff and board of health recently discussed the issue before passing the recommendations on to council, which approved the ordinance 7-0 Monday night. To date, more than 43% of the county’s 18 and older population have been fully vaccinated — with another 14% partially vaccinated, based on data aggregated by the borough.
“As far as the new changes to the ordinance, I think they’re sensible in light of the vaccination status of the members in our county and reasonable in terms of balance between what people need and health requirements,” said Councilwoman Katherine Yeaple, a registered nurse. “So I do support this change.”
Added Councilwoman Theresa Lafer: “I think that we need to continue this.”
There was light discussion about potentially keeping the indoor gathering limit at residences to 10 but, ultimately, both the board of health and council decided to keep the amended ordinance as written.
Borough Council passed the first COVID-19-related ordinance in early August, ahead of the return of Penn State students. Offenders can be fined $300 for not following the ordinance.
According to the state DOH, 220 Centre County residents have died of COVID-19 so far while 16,586 have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Out of 67 counties, Centre County currently ranks 45th in the commonwealth in weekly incidence rate — cases per 100,000 residents (94.8) — and is tied for 35th in weekly testing positivity rate (6.8%). During the height of the pandemic, the county ranked near the top.
This story was originally published May 11, 2021 at 11:09 AM.
