State College Borough poised to further extend masking ordinance. Here’s what happens next
After a formal recommendation issued Monday by the State College Board of Health, State College Borough is now poised to further extend its COVID-related mask ordinance through the end of January.
Borough council has the ultimate say in the ordinance but, since last year, it has not outright opposed any of the board’s recommended extensions. The current mask ordinance is set to expire Dec. 7, and borough council will vote on whether to follow — or potentially tweak — the board’s recommendation on Dec. 6.
“To remove it now makes not much sense to me,” board member Thomas Daubert said.
Based on precedent and past discussion, council is expected to extend the ordinance at its next meeting. The board of health unanimously recommended it continue through Jan. 31, although council has the power to change that date.
The ordinance that requires everyone to mask up indoors — regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status — in any borough business or building open to the public went into effect in mid-September. A stricter COVID-related ordinance was first passed in August 2020, however.
Council last temporarily extended the ordinance earlier this month, to give the local board of health time to meet and discuss whether to recommend extending the mandate further.
The board needed only 15 minutes Monday to unanimously agree in recommending an extension of the ordinance. After all, from Nov. 20-26, Centre County saw 467 reported cases of COVID — an increase over the previous week’s 401 cases — while hospitalizations have also increased.
According to Mount Nittany Medical Center’s dashboard, the hospital was treating 44 COVID patients Monday between the ages of 27 and 95. Four are currently in the ICU. At this time last year, Mount Nittany had a daily average of about 19 hospitalized COVID patients.
Another COVID variant, known as “omicron,” is also causing global concern — although there’s no evidence the variant has yet reached Centre County. Omicron’s transmissibility and the severity of the illness it causes are not yet known, but concern remains over its high number of mutations.
“I just want to say that I’m not going to state my opinion, but we need to keep in mind this new variant,” local board of health member Jacqueline Gardner said early during Monday’s meeting. “I’m sure at some point it’s going to go across the country, so that’s my two cents.”
Businesses can be fined up to $300 per day for violating the local ordinance, while individuals can be fined $300 per infraction. But State College police Lt. Greg Brauser said no such citations were written last month as the emphasis has been on “education, not citation.”
The State College Board of Health will meet again 4 p.m. Dec. 14 and tentatively Jan. 4, when it could issue another recommendation to borough council ahead of council’s Jan. 10 meeting.
This story was originally published November 29, 2021 at 2:38 PM.
