I returned to Massachusetts on May 29th - the same day the Commonwealth ended all COVID-19 restrictions including the mask mandate.
However, amid the surge in COVID cases via the Delta variant, several municipalities have announced the return of indoor mask mandates. This morning Boston's Acting Mayor Kim Janey announced an indoor mask mandate to take effect one week from today. Her announcement came less than 24 hours after Somerville City Council reinstated its indoor mask mandate.
I live in Cambridge, but all of 100 feet from the city line so I'm in Somerville virtually everyday. For its part, Cambridge is also reinstating an indoor mask rule although it is confined to municipal buildings.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has no plans to reintroduce a statewide mask mandate although he did reverse course today and is now pursuing a mask mandate in K-12 schools.
A few days back, my landlady complained about Baker not reimplementing the statewide mask mandate. I reminded her that at least Baker isn't like his Republican cohorts like Florida's Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott of Texas who are actively preventing local governments and school boards from instituting mask policies. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Georgia Governor Brian Kemp moving to weaken local mask mandates in Atlanta and Savannah by allowing businesses to disregard them. It used to be that Republicans favored local control. In this regard, Governor Baker is an exception to the rule.
As for me, I have gradually resumed wearing masks indoors when I go grocery shopping although I am largely maskless outdoors. For awhile, I had to wear a mask at work but that was relaxed but I suspect that will change in light of Boston's new policy. It is interesting that very few people in Atlanta were masked outdoors while I wore a mask outdoors until two days before leaving Georgia. Conversely, there are a lot of people in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville who wear masks outdoors although I have not resumed the practice with any kind of regularity.
Former President Trump was wrong. (I know a shocking revelation.) COVID-19 is not going to disappear like a miracle.
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