Heavy vehicles, including garbage trucks and snow plows, are set near the entrance to Capitol Hill at Pennsylvania Avenue and 3rd Street NW in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022, amid reports that trucker protests will arrive on March 1, the day of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
WASHINGTON — Mask wearing is no longer required on the House side of the Capitol, and won’t be mandatory at Tuesday’s State of the Union address, the Office of the Attending Physician announced.
“Individuals may choose to mask at any time, but it is no longer a requirement,” a letter sent to House staff Sunday night said.
The OAP move mirrors a Friday announcement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that said masks could come off in most areas of the country. The Washington area is currently at a low risk level for COVID-19, according to a new metric unveiled by the CDC.
If people have symptoms, a positive test or have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, a mask should still be worn at the Capitol, the OAP said. People should take other precautions, such as continuing to screen daily for symptoms before coming in to work and getting vaccinated.
Moving to make masks optional seemed far-off in January, during the height of the wave where the omicron variant of the coronavirus sent caseloads skyrocketing. The OAP said in January that “dozens” in the congressional community were testing positive for COVID-19 each day as the rate of infection jumped from 1% to 13%.
Now the positivity rate of those being tested at the Capitol Visitor Center has decreased to a seven-day average of 2.7% — lower than the rate in Washington of 4.7%, the OAP said.
Among those who tested positive, 89% were vaccinated and 63% were symptomatic. The omicron variants, both BA.1 and BA.2, are still responsible for most cases at the Capitol.
The House will cease distribution of at-home tests on March 7, and will resume if case levels rise, the OAP said. But the testing center at the Capitol Visitor Center will remain open and available for walk-in testing.
Masking on the House floor became a battleground last year for some lawmakers, like Georgia GOP Reps. Andrew Clyde and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who refused to wear masks and had tens of thousands of dollars in fines deducted from their paychecks.
The Senate, unlike the House, never enforced a formal mask requirement.
Nearly two years since the pandemic began, the U.S. is now in a new era where COVID-19 will likely be treated more like the seasonal flu and less like the virulent killer that has taken the lives of nearly 1 million Americans.
“The coronavirus pandemic has not ended, but moved into a different phase that reflects vaccine and post recovery immunity, availability of effective prevention and therapeutic drug strategies and decreased severity of disease for most people,” the OAP letter said.
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