Update 10/27/2021: Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich announced Wednesday afternoon that the county’s indoor mask mandate will end at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday morning. The county has reached seven consecutive days of “moderate” COVID-19 transmission.

Update 10/26/2021: The Montgomery County Council agreed on Tuesday to lift the mandate earlier than initially planned — at 12:01 a.m. Thursday morning, rather than Friday morning — if the county experiences a seven-day stretch of “moderate” COVID-19 transmission.

Original story:

Montgomery County residents may not have to wear a mask indoors as early as Friday, if COVID transmission levels continue their decline, health officials say.

The county is one of two in the region (the other being Howard County) that have seen case rates decline to “moderate” transmission levels, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Since Thursday, Montgomery has seen fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 people a day, moving the county from the category of “substantial” to “moderate” transmission, as categorized by the CDC. Many localities in the region reinstated their mask mandates over the summer when transmission levels reached “substantial” levels. A resolution by the county’s board of public health states that the county must be in moderate transmission for seven consecutive days before the indoor mask mandate is lifted.

“But the mask mandate can come back if we move into substantial transmissions,” County Council President Tom Hucker told reporters during his weekly press conference Monday. “We need to keep driving the numbers down.”

Hucker encouraged residents to continue getting vaccinated. Montgomery County  has one of the highest vaccination rates in the region — and the country—with at least 77% of residents fully vaccinated and 99% partially vaccinated, according to CDC data.

Sean O’Donnell, Montgomery County’s public health emergency preparedness manager, said data indicate that the county may reach the seventh consecutive day of moderate transmission levels late Thursday night or early Friday morning.

“We hope this will continue to trend in that right direction…showing a lower transmission rate across the county,” O’Donnell told reporters during a press conference Monday.

O’Donnell added that masking at schools, health-care facilities, and on public transportation is still required under the federal mandate.

Last week, County Executive Marc Elrich told reporters that even if the mask mandate is lifted, residents should still be cautious.

“I continue to encourage safe masking indoors,” he said.

Elsewhere in the region, the CDC transmission rates tracker indicates that transmission levels remain substantial. Prince George’s County–which also has an indoor mask mandate–is seeing roughly 60 new cases per 100,000 people a day. Almost 63% of Prince Georgians are fully vaccinated. The District is seeing about 86 new cases per 100,000 people a day with a little less than 60% of residents fully vaccinated. And in Virginia, Arlington and Fairfax counties are both seeing transmission rates higher than 77 cases per 100,000 people a day with more than two-thirds of their residents fully vaccinated.