Norwich to drop mask mandate for city offices, reopen police and fire departments
Norwich — The city will drop its mask mandate for city offices next week, will reopen the police and fire departments as well as City Council meetings to the public, City Manager John Salomone announced Friday.
The police station lobby will reopen to the public Monday, and the Norwich Fire Department will reopen starting Tuesday.
With declining COVID-19 numbers in the city and region, Salomone said he is easing some city restrictions. The mask mandate for city offices will cease Monday, although unvaccinated employees and guests still will be required to wear masks. The city will not check vaccination status, he said.
However, the mask mandate remains in place in the city's public schools after the Board of Education voted Thursday to extend it through March 18.
The City Council had been meeting in person but members of the public could not attend in person. Starting with the March 7 meeting, the council will allow members of the public to attend in person, in addition to being livestreamed and broadcast on Comcast cable. Chairpersons of various boards, commissions and committees will continue to have the option of holding meetings in person, online or hybrid, Salomone said.
The city manager had posed strict measures in December with the surge in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant of the coronavirus that causes the disease, reenacting mask mandates for all city offices, closing the police station lobby to the public and requiring all unvaccinated employees to show negative COVID-19 tests weekly. As predicted by health experts, the wave spread and subsided quickly.
During a weekly teleconference with city and regional government and health leaders Friday morning, Uncas Health District Director Patrick McCormack said case rates have dropped in the last three weeks in Norwich from 67.4 per 100,000 to 42.6, then to 23 the week ending Feb. 19. Total cases in the 11-town health district also dropped in the past three weeks, from 375 to 206 to 124 last week, he said.
McCormack cautioned that with rapid in-home testing, cases and test rates could be underreported.
Salomone said the city will continue to monitor COVID-19 trends and possible new variant surges for possible changes to city policies.
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