Cedar Rapids lifts mask mandate for city buildings

CEDAR RAPIDS — The city of Cedar Rapids late Thursday night dropped the requirement that staff and visitors wear masks inside city buildings and vehicles to curb the spread of COVID-19.

An email from City Manager Jeff Pomeranz to staff noted the mask mandate would be lifted, effective immediately, because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had updated its COVID-19 community transmission levels to “medium” for Linn County.

The metrics and county-level risk map are available at CDC.gov.

“Masking will continue to be welcomed for employees and visitors in city facilities,” Pomeranz wrote. “Moving forward, our masking policy will continue to respond to local data. The CDC advises communities to monitor health care surge support capabilities, and we will continue to do this in conjunction with our healthcare partners.”

Cedar Rapids’ mask requirement for city buildings took effect in mid-July as COVID-19 cases were on the rise again, fueled by new omicron subvariant, BA.5, the dominant variant within the United States that is highly contagious, even among those who are vaccinated or have previously been infected.

At the time, Linn County was at a “high“ community transmission level, when the CDC recommends wearing masks indoors. .

The city’s move drew criticism from Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who represents the city in Congress. Hinson said at the time that “wearing a mask should be a personal decision, not a government mandate.”

As members of Congress do not set city mask policy, and city leaders have supported using CDC metrics and hospital data to guide decisions on COVID-19 mitigation measures, Cedar Rapids’ Thursday decision comes after the CDC eased some COVID-19 quarantine and testing guidelines.

Unvaccinated and vaccinated people are still advised to mask up for 10 days and get tested five days after they were exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, under the CDC guidance, but people are not asked to self-quarantine after an exposure.

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