Starting on Tuesday, Iowa City will no longer have mask mandates for city buildings or other public spaces. According to a news release, the city is acting based on updated masking guidelines issued on Friday by the CDC.
“We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a news conference on Friday.
Under the new guidance, indoor mask-wearing is no longer recommended in communities with low or moderate virus spread, as long as “hospitals aren’t under high strain.” Approximately 70 percent of the nation’s population lives in areas where the CDC no longer recommends indoor masking.
In its update issued last Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported 241 newly confirmed cases of the virus during the previous seven days. According to the CDC’s online COVID-19 County Check tool, Johnson County is currently in the “moderate” category.
For people in communities at the moderate level, the CDC now recommends the following actions:
• If you are at high risk for severe illness, talk to your healthcare provider about whether you need to wear a mask and take other precautions
• Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines
• Get tested if you have symptoms
Cedar Rapids ended its mask requirement for city buildings on Friday, after the CDC announcement, and the Linn County Board of Supervisors voted 2-1 last week to remove mask requirements for county buildings.
Linn County is also listed in the moderate category by the CDC County Check tool, and in the last IDPH update, the county had 331 new cases of the virus.
Iowa City began its current mandate for mask-wearing in city buildings on Aug. 5, as virus activity in Johnson County surged. At that time, it appeared that local governments could only mandate the use of masks inside facilities they owned, because of a bill pushed through by Republicans in the state legislature that stripped local governments of the ability to require face masks, even during a public health emergency.
But on Aug. 19, Mayor Teague issued a new mask mandate that applied to most public spaces in Iowa City.
The new state law prohibited any municipality from cheating an ordinance or regulation “that requires the owner of real property to implement a policy relating to the use of facial coverings that is more stringent than a policy imposed by the state.” The Iowa City mandate got around that by not addressing property owners, but instead placed the responsibility for wearing masks on individuals entering public settings.
“We want everyone in the city of Iowa City to know that we are doing these extraordinary measures to ensure that we all get out of this COVID pandemic together,” Teague said when issued the mandate. “We are in this together, and the City of Iowa City, the councilors and the staff stand in full solidarity in saying, ‘Please follow this order of wearing a mask, as has been cited.’”
Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office issued a statement at the time saying the mayor’s action was “against the law and it’s not enforceable.” The governor, however, never took any steps to actually challenge the mandate.
At the end of September, Teague indefinitely extended the mask mandate: “Iowa City is still on high risk alert. I don’t feel that now is the time to change the requirement. … At some point we will turn the corner.”
In remarks included in the city’s news release on Monday, Teague seemed to indicate that corner has been turned.
“New cases of COVID-19 are decreasing and hospitalizations due to the illness continue to fall. I ask the entire Iowa City community to continue to do your part to prevent the spread of this disease. Make responsible choices. Isolate or quarantine when necessary. And wear a mask if you’re a risk to others.”
In an email to district families on Saturday, the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD) Superintendent Matt Degner said, “we will not enforce the mask requirement in our schools and on our campuses on Monday, February 28, and Tuesday, March 1, 2022.” According to Degner, this decision was made in accordance with the new CDC guidelines, and the ICCSD Board of Directors will decide whether to lift mask requirements during its meeting on Tuesday.
The Cedar Rapids Community School District lifted its masking requirement following a decision by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals that limited a federal judge’s order allowing schools to require masks to just 10 school districts in the state. Cedar Rapids is not one of those districts, but ICCSD is.
