The Montgomery County Council confirmed in a meeting Tuesday that the county-wide indoor mask mandate will end as scheduled on Monday, Feb. 21, and lawmakers won’t be voting on a proposed “vaccine passport” plan as the region moves past the omicron surge.

The council’s announcements come shortly after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser moved to abruptly end the city’s vaccine mandate for businesses on Tuesday, Feb. 15 (the day it was slated to fully take effect) and announced the city’s indoor mask requirement for businesses will end on March 1. Also on Monday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced that the indoor mask requirement for state buildings will end on Feb. 22. Neighboring Prince George’s County extended its indoor mask mandate in January, which is now expected to end on March 9.

During a press briefing on Monday afternoon, Montgomery County Council President Gabe Albornoz said ending the indoor mask mandate on Feb. 21 “felt right,” after consultations with public health officials. He also said the council has “no plans” to move forward on proposed vaccine mandate legislation, which would have required anyone entering restaurants, fitness centers, entertainment venues and hotels to show proof of vaccination. Lawmakers introduced the measure the behest of County Executive Marc Elrich in January, but pushback from residents and business owners delayed a vote on the bill indefinitely.

“We did want to see what the experiences were of our neighboring jurisdictions, particularly the District of Columbia,” Albornoz said Monday, after Bowser announced she’d be eliminating the city’s vaccine mandate. “We just were not ready and prepared to move forward, and I think the decision made by the District of Columbia validates the decision to wait… I don’t anticipate that we will be bringing this up any time soon.”

Masks will still be required in the county’s public school system until the Montgomery County Public School Board changes its policy.

The changes come as the county sees a drastic decline in COVID case rates since the peak of the omicron surge earlier this year. As of Monday, the county’s case rate per 100,000 residents was just above 10. During the peak of the omicron surge in January, that metric tipped past 300. The positivity rate, which measures the number of positive cases out of total tests administered, has also plummeted — from from nearly 27% in early January to roughly 3% on Monday. Still, the county remains in what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention categorizes as “substantial spread” for the virus, and the county’s case rate remains higher than it was throughout much of summer and fall last year.

Speaking to reporters, Albornoz said part of the council’s hesitation regarding the vaccine mandate for businesses rested in its efficacy, given the council’s already high vaccination rate. Nearly 85% of Montgomery County’s total population is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Of the vaccine-eligible population (individuals five and older), roughly 90% are fully vaccinated, and about half of the county’s fully vaccinated residents have received a booster dose.

A spokesperson for Elrich, who introduced the vaccine mandate legislation and has been pushing for a vaccine passport program since late 2021, said the county executive is disappointed that the council had not acted sooner.

“The County Executive believed that proof of vaccinations was the right course of action for our region and when the District of Columbia implemented their program at the end of last year, it was proper for Montgomery County to follow suit,” spokesperson Scott Peterson wrote in an emailed statement to DCist/WAMU. “He hopes that if or when another surge happens, we are all willing to consider these kinds of measures to protect the health of our residents.”