Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced Wednesday that the county will lift its mask mandate on Friday, May 28.

Masks will still be required in schools, health care settings, and on public transportation, in line with Gov. Larry Hogan’s statewide order lifting mask requirements earlier this month. A business may decide whether or not it will continue to require masks, and Alsobrooks called on residents to continue to respect these policies.

“You don’t know a person’s situation, whether they were sick, whether they lost a loved one…so please be respectful of a person who says ‘I’m not comfortable taking off my mask’ or a business, if that business says ‘we prefer for you to keep the mask on,” Alsobrooks said. “You don’t know what that business has experienced, whether a number of their employees were sick at some point. Let’s be respectful of each other.”

Throughout the pandemic, Prince George’s County, one of the Maryland jurisdictions hardest hit by the virus, has not followed in lock-step with Hogan’s reopening decisions and has instead taken a more conservative approach. Prince George’s County now joins neighboring Montgomery County and D.C., where officials have also dropped mask mandates for fully vaccinated individuals in recent days.

Alsobrooks noted during Wednesday’s press conference that it may take some time for residents to feel comfortable without their masks, but said the county’s plummeting coronavirus case rates justified the decision to do away with its mask mandate. The announcement comes after she lifted coronavirus restrictions on most business and activities on May 17.

“I know that some of you remain concerned about lifting the mask mandate and I want you to hear me — I understand your concern. Prince Georgians have suffered greatly during this pandemic, and we were so hard hit. I know that we’ve experienced the worst that this pandemic can do, and so those days have not been forgotten,” Alsobrooks said. “For those who are not comfortable removing their mask at this point…there is no problem with you continuing to wear it.” 

As of Wednesday, the county reported a positivity rate — which measures the number of positive cases out of total tests administered — of 1.9%; Prince George’s has held that metric below 5% for at least a month. During the surge in spring 2020, the positivity rate tipped past 40% in Prince George’s County. The moving average of new cases per 100,000 residents has also plummeted, from nearly 60 during the winter peak, to below 5.0 as of May 25, the lowest that metric has been since the beginning of the pandemic.

The significant decline in new coronavirus cases can be attributed, at least partially, to an uptick in vaccination rates across the county. So far, Prince George’s County has administered more than 700,000 vaccines: 327,348 residents are fully vaccinated, making up about 36% of the county’s total population. Alsobrooks stressed the importance of increasing the county’s vaccination rate, and encouraged residents to open the door to the county’s vaccine canvassers, who are offering information about the coronavirus immunization and connecting people with ways to get their shots.

“This is necessary is because we have reached a point where the supply for the vaccine has outpaced the demand,” Alsobrooks said. “We are really doing everything we can from the government standpoint to make sure we’re not waiting for you to come to us.” 

This post has been updated with additional information.