Twin Cities Mask Mandates Lifted
On March 10th in Minneapolis, Mayor Jacob Frey signed Emergency Regulation 2022-8,
immediately lifting the City’s mask requirement for City employees and City-managed
buildings. Visitors and employees in City-managed buildings are no longer required to
wear a mask. Also, in Saint Paul, Mayor Melvin Carter signed Executive Order 2022-17,
rescinding Executive Order 2022-14, effectively lifting the mask requirement for City-
controlled facilities in Saint Paul.
“We continue to make policy decisions based on current data,” said Frey. “Minneapolis
is sustaining a downward trend in case and hospitalization rates, and the new CDC
indicators reflect a low community level classification in Hennepin County. Thanks to
the dedication of our employees, we’ve reached the necessary benchmarks to safely lift
this requirement for our workforce and buildings.”
"We are entering a new, promising phase of our recovery,” said Mayor Carter. “While we
still have work to do, I’m glad we are in the place to safely wind down emergency
masking measures.”
Rates in Minneapolis have been dropping rapidly. Hennepin County is in the low
community level classification by CDC as of March 17th. Rates in Ramsey County were
also dropping and are classified by CDC as Low as of March 17th.
People can wear a mask based on personal preference, informed by personal level of
risk. People with symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19
should wear a mask.
Both cities will continue to closely monitor the situation and will remain nimble if there
is a shift in indicators such as case rates, percent positivity, hospitalization rates, and
hospital bed capacity- the three indicators tracked by CDC for community levels.
This marked the end to any kind of mask mandate in all Minnesota cities, including
Duluth ending theirs on March 9th.
However private business and certain places like hospital or congregate care places
may have their own mask policy the patrons are required to follow. Also, the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that their mask mandate is
still in effect for all public transit until April 18th.
Sources:
https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/statements/2022/03/10/statement-regarding-face-
mask-use-public-transportation
https://duluthmn.gov/media/WebSubscriptions/31/20220309-31-6829.pdf
https://www.stpaul.gov/news/mayor-carter-lifts-mask-requirement-city-controlled-
facilities-saint-paul-effective
https://www.minneapolismn.gov/news/2022/march/mask-mandate-lifted-for-city-
managed-buildings/
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/community-levels.html