Mayor Muriel Bowser has extended D.C.’s indoor mask mandate for another month, as COVID-19 cases are still high albeit rapidly dropping. D.C. residents and visitors will have to mask up in public, indoor spaces until at least Feb 28.

At a press conference on Thursday, Bowser said it is unclear whether she’ll extend the mandate past February. She and her team will have to evaluate COVID-19 metrics, including case rates, then.

Bowser has also extended the limited public health emergency until Feb. 15, which offers hospitals more support and flexibility. At least two hospitals requested to operate differently during this time, said DC Health Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt on Thursday.

D.C. will be providing free KN95 masks at COVID centers starting Friday, Jan. 28. Residents will be limited to two masks per day. COVID centers also offer vaccines, including booster shots, and testing, both PCR and rapid.

Bowser reinstated the indoor mask mandate right before the holidays, when D.C. started reporting a record number of new infections. Amid the omicron surge, D.C. recorded the most cases ever in early January, over 2,000 new infections. A concerning level of hospitalizations followed record-breaking case counts, overwhelming hospital workers who were understaffed and burned out.

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have since declined. According to the Washington Post, new cases fell by 60% over the last week and hospitalizations by 22%. While cases are decreasing — among the fastest drop seen nationally — the number of new infections is still higher than the last surge’s peak, according to Nesbitt.

Some people — including Dr. Anthony Fauci — had questioned Bowser’s decision to lift the mask mandate in mid-November. Many experts anticipated cases to surge during the holiday season, as more people travelled and gathered indoors. Bowser said she did regret her decision. “I don’t regret evolving with the virus, which is exactly what we’ve done throughout the virus,” Bowser said during a press conference in late December. “So as conditions warranted, we’ve changed our interventions, and we are changing them again.”

While highly-contagious, the Omicron variant does not appear as lethal as others, particularly for those who are fully vaccinated and boosted. The substantial community spread and vast number of infections meant more people were getting sick and in need of hospitalization.  The D.C. region also started reporting a concerning number of deaths related to COVID-19 in mid-to-late January. Most of the victims were unvaccinated.

Like D.C., lawmakers in Montgomery County extended the mask mandate to Feb. 21. Prince George’s County’s mandate, meanwhile, is set to expire on March 9.

This post has been updated to include information from the mayor’s press conference.