BOSTON (WHDH) - Many communities and businesses in Massachusetts are reinstating indoor mask requirements to follow suit with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s updated guidelines.
The New England Aquarium in Boston announced that all guests over the age of 5 and staff who interact with guests will be required to mask up starting Saturday.
The Institute of Contemporary Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts will also implement mask requirements for visitors beginning Saturday.
The museums and the aquarium said that the updated guidance is in alignment with the CDC’s mask recommendation for people in areas that are at a high or substantial risk for COVID-19 transmission.
Suffolk County is currently one of eight Mass. counties in the substantial-risk category. Four additional counties fall in the high-risk category.
On Thursday, the Nantucket Board of Health voted to implement an indoor mask mandate.
Customers at restaurants, bars, and dance clubs can only remove their face coverings when seated.
A gift shop on the island, AKC 4170, had closed their shop Wednesday after getting push back for their mask requirement.
The owners took to Instagram to write, “Is wearing your mask in our store for 10 minutes really the end of the world? Don’t you want to be safe and healthy? It all comes down to respect and decency for other human beings. Yesterday afternoon was the icing on the cake. Customers being disrespectful and inconsiderate was not going to be tolerated.”
They posted a sign on the shop’s door that read “Mental health break. Please be kind.” to alert people about the closing.
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