Mayor Muriel Bowser is revoking the vaccine requirement for indoor businesses in Washington, D.C., effective Tuesday, she announced on Monday.
Under the order, private enterprises and certain public places will no longer be required to verify customers’ vaccination status, although they can impose the rules themselves if they choose. The mandate was first enacted only a month ago, effective January 15.
The city’s mask mandate for indoor spaces will also be “dialed back” starting March 1, said Bowser. While masks will not be required at restaurants, entertainment venues, churches, grocery stores, or other, similar venues, they will still be required in schools after that date. Businesses can require masks of their own accord.
“We are in a much better place to announce adjustments to that winter action plan,” the mayor said Monday.
The update from the mayor’s office suggests that the vaccine mandate for K-12 school children, including those who attend charter, private and parochial schools — which was set to go into effect March 1 — will remain in place. Bowser cited the lower vaccination rates among certain age groups of students as the reason.
Bowser’s abrupt about-face comes as the city’s Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations plummet, dropping by more than 90 percent in Washington D.C. since the peak of the Omicron wave.
The mayor expressed that it’s important for localities to be flexible to changing conditions, an example which a bipartisan handful of governors set last week by dropping their states’ mask mandates.
“We have to be nimble if something is to change, like it changed in December with a new, very contagious variant,” Bowser said, according to NBC Washington. “I don’t think any of us can say here that there won’t be other variants that would require us to do something different.”
Like Washington, D.C., Chicago is positioned to rescind its vaccine and mask mandates for indoor settings later this month, as soon as the governor relaxes restrictions for the state, city health officials said.