Starting in mid-May, the Kennedy Center will no longer require proof of COVID-19 vaccination to attend its indoor performances and events. The Kennedy Center’s current vaccination policy, which requires most patrons to show proof of vaccination to attend events, will remain in effect until May 15.

“The Kennedy Center has routinely utilized the latest available information in consultation with the Cleveland Clinic and Inova to evaluate and adjust health and safety policies and will continue to do so as local and national conditions evolve,” the Kennedy Center wrote in a note on its website announcing the change. Patrons will still be required to wear masks inside all of the theaters during performances.

In February, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser lifted the city’s vaccine requirement for businesses and dropped the city’s mask mandate in most indoor settings. But in performing arts venues, these types of COVID-related precautions have lasted a bit longer: many local theaters have extended their mask and vaccine mandates through the end of May.

Theatre Washington, an organization that represents and supports theaters in the D.C. area, conducted a survey in March to help theaters make decisions about masking and vaccine requirements and found that most of the approximately 2,000 people surveyed strongly opposed dropping vaccination requirements, and a slight majority opposed dropping the mask mandate at the end of April. As a result of that survey, 35 local theaters and performing arts venues announced in March that they would extend mask and vaccine requirements through the end of April. Theatre Washington’s website now says the requirements will continue for participating theaters until at least May 31 and will continue to be evaluated monthly.

When the survey results were published, researcher Mark Shugoll, who led the project, said in a statement that the findings indicated that theatergoers were “concerned about attending the theatre this spring without a mask requirement,” but added that “as the dominoes fall to eliminate mask requirements in other areas of entertainment, theatres may be hard-pressed to continue this policy much beyond the end of April.”

Since that March announcement, other prominent performing arts venues have indeed loosened their COVID-related precautions.

In April, all music venues under the I.M.P. umbrella — 9:30 Club, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Lincoln Theatre, and The Anthem — announced that they were dropping their mask and vaccine requirements, except in cases where performers request that audiences wear masks and show proof of vaccination.

“We encourage patrons to be vaccinated and wear masks, but we’re following government guidance and not requiring it,” wrote I.M.P. spokesperson Audrey Fix Schaefer in an email to DCist/WAMU at the time.

The impact COVID-19 has on personal health and healthcare systems in D.C. is currently medium, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (The CDC recently revised its way of measuring risk to deemphasize case counts in favor of weighting the burden on health care systems more strongly). The D.C. health department’s COVID-19 data says that while case counts have increased during April, overall disease severity and the impact of COVID-19 on the District’s hospitals remains low. Still, the proliferation of at-home tests means that COVID-19 cases are probably being severely undercounted, and public health experts warn that for the elderly and immunocompromised, the risk of serious complications from COVID-19 cases remains high.