Danvers Indoor Mask Order Up For Review Thursday Night

DANVERS, MA — The Danvers Board of Health will meet once again Thursday night one week after Board members said that improving COVID metrics could convince them to lift the town's mask indoor for indoor public spaces.

The Board had pledged to meet one week after a lively, 90-minute public comment session last Thursday that apparently swayed members who appeared earlier in the meeting set to let the mandate reimposed amid the omicron spike late in December to run longer than seven additional days.

"I heard some things tonight that I had not considered," Danvers Board of Health Chair Thomas McLaughlin said near the end of the 2 1/2-hour meeting. "There were some very intelligent, well-thought-out reasons to (consider lifting the order)."

The Board of Health was presented with a petition with more than 500 signatures asking it to repeal the mandate earlier in the week, with McLaughlin allowing that most advanced written comment to the Board prior to the last meeting felt the same.

The Board initially was not going to have public comment at its last meeting but relented. The overwhelming majority of those who then spoke for up to three minutes each advocated for the end of the mandate.

They were apparently highly convincing.

"If a week from now we convene and the trend continues the way we've seen it I would be comfortable with that," Board of Health member Dutrochet Djoko concluded of lifting the order at the end of the meeting.

As of Monday, the statewide positive-test rate fell from a high of 23.5 percent early in January to 4.78 percent in a seven-day weighted average, according to the state Department of Public Health. COVID-related hospitalizations, which topped 3,200 in early January, were down to 1,482.

The Danvers Board of Health Agenda for Thursday's meeting includes public comment, a COVID update and a board discussion on "indoor face-covering regulation."

Those who wish to join the meeting can do so here.

(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.)