The Ferguson Township Board of Supervisors unanimously voted on Monday to hold a public hearing to consider amending the municipality’s temporary emergency COVID-19 ordinance. The change would align the ordinance with new statewide guidance from the state Department of Health concerning the masking of fully vaccinated people.
The public hearing will be held June 7.
This comes after the health department updated its order on May 13 to state that anyone who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer needs to wear a mask or practice physical distancing in most places, indoors and outdoors, following U.S. Centers for Disease Control guidance.
The guidance does require masks to be worn in some circumstances, regardless of vaccination status. Those include in doctors’ offices, hospitals, long-term care facilities, homeless shelters and prisons and on airplanes, buses and other public transportation.
Local government, businesses and organizations still can continue to enforce their own restrictions as they see fit.
The amendment to the ordinance would also increase the limitations on outdoor gatherings from 50 to 100 for most circumstances to be consistent with the DOH revised guidelines and other municipalities. It would also extend the temporary ordinance through July 31.
In Ferguson Township, supervisors agreed it would be best to follow guidance from the DOH.
“My thought process is that originally when we started this process, we aligned ourselves with the Department of Health, and I think for consistency we should stick with that,” Supervisor Steve Miller said.
Following the DOH guidelines would simplify the process for the township, Supervisor Prasenjit Mitra said.
“You wouldn’t have to revisit it again and again. If we had a simple alignment with DOH, then whatever it is they do, then automatically those changes (go into effect),” Mitra said. “If we think there are certain parts that need to be a little more restrictive because we are a college town or whatever the reasoning is, then we can think about that.”
The move would align Ferguson with Patton and College township ordinances that were updated this spring to follow current DOH orders on masking.
State College Borough and Penn State currently continue to require masks indoors and in crowded settings outdoors, regardless of vaccination status.
At a meeting on Wednesday, the State College Board of Health held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the borough’s COVID-19 ordinance and recommended the ordinance be updated to follow the CDC and DOH guidance for masking, encourage but not require masks in crowded settings, and increase the limits on outdoor gatherings to 100 people.
Borough council will meet at noon on Friday to consider changes to the ordinance.
Penn State officials said on May 14 that while the university evaluates the new guidance, “masking and physical distancing is expected by all individuals — regardless of vaccination status — inside Penn State campus buildings and on public transportation across all campuses.”
When outdoors on campus, vaccinated people are not required to wear a mask or practice physical distancing, but unvaccinated individuals “must continue to wear masks when physical distancing from individuals outside of the same household or ‘pod’ is not possible.”
“Penn State is a complex organization, which is spread across the entire commonwealth ” Penn State President Eric Barron said in a written statement. “So, while we are reviewing the new federal and state guidelines, we ask that our community continue to follow the defined university guidance to protect the health and safety of our community.”
Barron “strongly encouraged” students to report their vaccine through MyUHS. A similar system is planned for employees. “With this information we will be better able to assess vaccination rates,” Barron said.
Ferguson Township Manager David Pribulka said that Centre Region community members should be aware of what municipality they are in and follow ordinances accordingly.
While most COVID-19 mitigation orders in Pennsylvania will be lifted on May 31, the statewide mask order will not be fully lifted for unvaccinated people until 70 percent of the state’s adults are vaccinated, according to Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration.
This story appears in the May 20-26 edition of The Centre County Gazette. StateCollege.com’s Geoff Rushton contributed to this report.
