Montgomery County councilmembers unanimously approved extending the indoor mask mandate Tuesday, even as COVID hospitalizations and transmission rates continue trending down.

Earlier this month, the county reinstated the indoor mask mandate in light of the omicron surge; it was set to expire at the end of the month. The mandate will now end Feb. 21 at 11:59 p.m. The newest mandate is in contrast to the approach from late last year, when the council determined that specific thresholds on metrics like COVID transmission rates, hospitalizations, and deaths had to be reached prior to revoking the mandate.

Now, rather than the metrics acting as a trigger, they’ll simply be used as guidance for councilmembers and health officers when they meet each week to determine if the mandate should stay in place. During the council meeting Tuesday, Councilmember Nancy Navarro and other members agreed that the council needed a specific date to determine when and if the mandate will be revoked. But Navarro added, “we don’t have a crystal ball.”

“If we have to confront another wave of another variant, then we have to respond to that,” Navarro told her colleagues.

But councilmembers reiterated that they are wary of putting metrics and a specific end date on the mask mandate after residents expressed outrage for the flip-flopping of policies last year. In late October, the county council lifted the mask mandate,  reinstating it less than a week later. Council Vice President Evan Glass compared the county’s mask mandate saga to the Peanuts cartoon.

“It is Lucy pulling the football from Linus,” Glass said (it was actually Charlie Brown, not Linus, but his colleagues got the point). “And I just want to make sure that everyone has their eyes open…I know there is going to be disappointment that we continue to have the mask mandate.”

Currently, there are more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past seven days, according to county health data. While that number is trending down, it is still at a level not seen previously during the pandemic. Almost 25% of hospital beds are being used by COVID patients, similar to the level seen during the surge in cases last January.

Elsewhere in the region, the District’s mask mandate ends Jan. 31, and Prince George’s County’s is set to expire on March 9.