Durham County issued the following announcement on February 17.
DURHAM, N.C. – Officials of the City of Durham and Durham County announced that they will continue to monitor Omicron variant case numbers a few weeks longer as they wait for new guidance from the NC Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control. This announcement follows Governor Cooper’s news conference Thursday when he encouraged schools and local governments to end mask mandates by March 7th.
Mayor Elaine O’Neal noted that, “Durham is the City of Medicine, and our priority, as elected officials, is to continue to keep our residents as safe as possible during the pandemic by relying on science and the recommendations of state and local health experts, including the Durham Department of Public Health. Our community is definitely trending in the right direction with the metrics needed to determine lifting the mask mandate, and in just a few weeks, we should reach our goals.”
County Commissioners Chair Brenda Howerton added, “We’re grateful to our residents for listening to the informed recommendations that have been shared around the importance of masking, distancing and finally obtaining vaccines and boosters to battle this pandemic. We are so close to the place where we can safely begin to resume our pre-Covid activities such as shopping and dining at our favorite places. We ask for just a bit more patience to make sure we don’t have any changes to our positive metrics.”
City and County leaders met following the Governor’s announcement to review the current state of the Omicron variant in Durham. Durham County Public Health officials noted that the data shows encouraging signs that the surge is indeed trending downward. But they recommended that officials continue to evaluate at least one of the following COVID-19 trends:
At least 2 incubation periods (28 days) have passed since the date of last holiday exposure* AND county transmission is at or below CDC’s guideline for moderate transmission (50 cases/100,000 per week) in conjunction with a rate of transmission below 0.6
OR
Percent lab positivity at or below 5% for 14 days.
From now until the end of March, leaders will continue to monitor the critical metrics and make a final decision about the mask mandates and more.
Durham's current order was put into effect on August 9, 2021 as the Delta variant began to surge. That order currently remains in place until it is rescinded.
View the current order here: www.dconc.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/35361/637639461424270000.
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Original source can be found here.
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