Greenwich To Ease Mask Mandate For Private Businesses

GREENWICH, CT — With improving COVID-19 case numbers, vaccination and hospitalization rates, First Selectman Fred Camillo announced on Wednesday that some masking requirements will be eased in Greenwich.

Masks will still be required in town facilities and Town Hall for the time being, but they won't be mandated at private businesses. Instead, business and club owners can choose their own policy. An official announcement is expected later this week or early next week with an effective date for the new guidance, Camillo said.

In August, Camillo instituted a mask mandate at Town Hall, and later a universal indoor mask mandate across town due to the spread of the contagious delta variant of the COVID-19 virus.

"We said well over a month ago when we put the mask mandate in place that we would monitor it, that it wasn't forever, and we would relax [measures] as soon as we can," Camillo said. "The metrics we used are things like people coming back to school, people coming back from vacation, the large number of events with thousands of people — and we've had a few already to see if there were any spikes, and there weren't any — and the hospitalizations. We're going to be relaxing the mandate for private businesses. If they want to continue they can certainly do that."

Along with the mask mandate in August, Camillo required town employees to get vaccinated by Sept. 27, or submit to weekly testing. On Wednesday, Camillo said weekly testing won't be required due to such high vaccination rates in some departments.

"It's looking very good as far as vaccinations in Town Hall and the various departments. Some departments are 100 percent, some are 90 percent. We think we're fine and we don't see a need for testing," Camillo explained. "We're just telling people to wear a mask if you're not vaccinated and we should be fine. Right now we're not seeing cases and our [vaccination] numbers are there."

Camillo is looking for feedback from town employees about the mask mandate before he decides to lift the requirement there.

"Certainly they know that will end, too, but we want to get their feedback first to see how we roll that out," Camillo noted.

In general for the town, 85.64 percent of the eligible population (52,482 people) has received one dose of a vaccine, and 79 percent have full vaccine coverage.

At Greenwich Hospital as of Wednesday morning, just one COVID-19 patient was being treated, according to Dana Marnane, vice president of communications at the hospital. The patient was in the Intensive Care Unit on a ventilator.

Across the Yale New Haven Health System as of Wednesday, there were 73 COVID-19 patients being treated. Of those, 49 are unvaccinated. According to Yale New Haven Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tom Balcezak, hospitalizations in the system due to COVID-19 are down 45 percent compared to where they were two weeks ago.

However, both Marnane and Camillo urged residents to still be cautious.

"This doesn't change the fact that we need to remain vigilant, and when appropriate, wear a mask, social distance, get vaccinated, and wash your hands," Marnane said.

Camillo told residents to attend scheduled events and not to cancel them in this new normal.

"This is going to be with us. We don't know how many variants are coming, but certainly we want people to live normal lives but do the things you've always done: wash your hands, keep a distance, and bring a mask with you in case you need to be somewhere that requires a mask. Get outside and enjoy yourself," he said. "Hats off to Greenwich for adhering to the protocols. When we did that requirement for the masks, we were in the red zone and we had cases climbing. We said the whole point was to flatten it out, and we've done that. I want to salute the people of Greenwich."