Penn State announced on Friday it will no longer require masks to be worn in many indoor settings at campuses, including University Park, where the local community level of COVID-19 is medium or low, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control in new metrics and guidance introduced last week.
Masks will still be required in “classrooms, labs and other academic and creative spaces on all campuses,” regardless of community level because of their high density of congregation, according to a university news release.
But beginning Monday, masks will no longer be required in other indoor spaces, such as dining commons, gyms and athletic venues.
Masks will continue to be required where mandated by law or regulation, including public transportation, COVID-19 testing centers and health care settings.
The Penn State Schuylkill campus will continue to mandate masking at all indoor locations because Schuylkill County is still at the high community level. The College of Medicine also will continue the mask mandate in alignment with Penn State Health’s guideline to support patient care.
The CDC introduced last week new metrics for determining mitigation guidelines that measure not only new cases, but also new hospitalizations and local hospital capacity. At the low and medium community levels there is no recommendation for indoor masking except for those at high risk for severe illness.
Centre County had been at the high level for the first week of the new levels, but dropped to the medium level in the CDC’s Thursday update.
After reaching pandemic highs in December and early January new cases and hospitalizations have dropped precipitously in Centre County and across Pennsylvania, hitting their lowest levels since early August.
Mount Nittany Medical Center had 12 COVID-19 inpatients on Thursday. The hospital had an average daily census of 57 COVID-19 inpatients in December and 45 in January.
The county’s seven-day average for new cases as of Thursday was 22 — down from 120 a month earlier and 244 six weeks ago.
