Masks Required In Beverly City Buildings Despite Mandate Lift

BEVERLY, MA —While masks once again became optional in most indoor public spaces in Beverly as of Thursday there are some exceptions.

Beverly is keeping the municipal building mask order for now, meaning that if you are going inside City Hall, the public library and other municipal buildings, you must continue to mask up. Masks are also required on the MBTA, in health care facilities such as Beverly Hospital and inside Beverly Public Schools.

The Board of Health voted on Monday to lift the order after just four weeks for most other businesses and public spaces amid declining coronavirus cases in the city and across the state.

Beverly became the first North Shore community that had reimposed the mask order during the recent omicron surge to drop it. Lowell dropped its mask order this week, while both Danvers and Peabody have set dates to review their respective orders.

The Salem Board of Health meeting on Tuesday includes agenda items to discuss and vote and whether to maintain or rescind both its indoor mask order and its proof-of-vaccination order to enter bars, restaurants, gyms. museums, theaters and other entertainment venues.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)