Rexford Amadu handed his 2-year-old daughter a bag of snacks as a Thanksgiving parade of marching bands and holiday-themed floats snaked through downtown Silver Spring.
Amadu, like most of the crowd, was wearing a mask. But the county’s newly reinstated mandate had little to do with his decision, he said.
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“If people are not respecting whatever it takes to get through this situation, then it is what it is,” Amadu, a 37-year-old accountant, said about the mask mandate, which took effect, again, on Saturday. “I am masking no matter where I am so the changes of ‘mandate on, mandate off’ don’t really bother me.”
Amid a sustained increase in coronavirus case rates, Montgomery County reintroduced the mask mandate less than a month after lifting it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported more than 60 cases per 100,000 residents, what the agency considers to be a “substantial” level of community spread and deserving of a warning to wear masks indoors.
Montgomery County reinstates its mask mandate, bringing frustration and relief
Montgomery County’s rule change comes two days before neighboring D.C. is set to relax its masking policy. On Monday, the District will let residents choose whether to wear masks in offices, stores, gyms and many other places. Businesses can still require masks, but it will not be legally mandated.
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Meanwhile, most of Northern Virginia has recommended, but not mandated, mask usage since May.
For some people in Montgomery County, the mandate will have little effect on their day-to-day lives. Sheila Hunt, who co-owns Record Exchange, a record store in Silver Spring, said she has continued to enforce a mask mandate inside the shop — even after the county stopped requiring residents to wear them in most public, indoor settings in late October.
“We didn’t lift it just because it’s such an enclosed space, and we wanted to make sure our customers are comfortable and safe,” Hunt said. There was little pushback to the decision — just a few negative Instagram comments, she said — and employees stored extra masks behind the counter for barefaced customers.
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But, with the county’s authority, she expects less difficulty.
“It’s much easier to enforce the mandate when the county is behind us,” Hunt said.
Ditlada Wichaidit, a manager at Sweeteria, also welcomed the return of the county’s mandate. The tea and dessert shop opened in the middle of the pandemic, and many of her customers are used to wearing masks.
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“Our customers, they know already,” she said. After county leaders lifted its mandate, Wichaidit said she continued to ask customers to mask up. But she sometimes ran into disagreements with tourists or customers from other counties.
For some businesses, the whiplash is disorienting. Geoff Tracy, who manages four restaurants throughout the region, called requiring face coverings inside restaurants absurd.
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“Above all other locations, restaurants are the most ridiculous place to have a mask mandate because it’s a farce,” said Tracy, who’s Italian-inspired restaurant, Lia’s, is in Chevy Chase. “Every single customer that’s in there, they walk in, are supposed to wear a mask to the host stand and then essentially they don’t have the mask on until they get up and leave.”
Montgomery County’s mask mandate, like most others, does not require people to wear masks in public while eating or drinking — exactly what people do inside of restaurants, Tracy noted.
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But, Tracy added, “I’ll 100 percent enforce whatever the county tells me I need to mandate.” He said each of his 250 employees are vaccinated and most continued to wear masks even after the county stopped requiring it.
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Selam Tefera, who owns Sheger Spring Cafe, said she doesn’t understand why a mask mandate is being enforced, especially in a county where most residents are vaccinated. With 78 percent of the total population fully immunized, Montgomery County is one of the most vaccinated areas in the nation, according to the CDC.
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The back-and-forth can be confusing for customers, Tefera said. She added the mandate can be difficult to enforce when the rules feel like they are always changing.
“For me, it doesn’t make sense,” Tefera said. But she will enforce the mandate — the cafe’s window bears a sign instructing customers to cover their faces. “The social distancing is the most important thing,” she said.
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Kenneth Moreno, who lives in Bethesda, said he doesn’t know when he’ll stop wearing a mask. For many, with or without a mask requirement, the future feels just as unpredictable as it was when the pandemic began nearly two years ago.
Moreno, 37, has a 10-month-old son and “until he’s able to get a vaccine, I’m going to be pro-mask？” he said, taking a break from browsing the produce at a Silver Spring farmers market. “I don’t know when I’ll feel comfortable not wearing a mask.”