WALTHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - A growing number of Massachusetts cities and towns are implementing mask mandates as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.
Waltham and Wellfleet are the latest communities considering making face coverings in public indoor settings a requirement.
Belmont, Nantucket, Provincetown, and Salem are among the other communities that have already implemented an indoor mask mandate.
People enjoying the restaurants on Moody Street in Waltham were hopeful when the state lifted the mask mandate about two months ago.
“It was great. There was a sense of freedom for everybody. I think that’s the key,” Steve Sera, of Moody Street TV Production, said. “Everybody was thinking like things were kind of getting back to normal.”
Now, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that people in Middlesex County wear face coverings, even if they are vaccinated, as the COVID-19 transmission rate remains substantial.
“I think it’s whatever we have to do protect people. I mean whatever’s got to get done,” Sera said. “I think people want to get back to normal. I think people want to get back to their regular lives and the quickest way we can do that, between vaccinating and masks, whatever it’s got to be, so that we can get back to seeing each other again.”
Tammy Rowe is one of the people who agrees that the mask mandate is a sensible measure.
“I feel like everybody should be masked,” she said. “I’ve only been eating outdoors lately, so I will fell much better just being at a supermarket with everybody masked. I’ll be more likely to go shopping inside, frankly, if I see everybody with a mask.”
Laura Costello says she would rather there be no mask mandate.
“I’d prefer not to go back to the masks,” she said. “We all got vaccinated but I also get the safety of others and I know everybody has their own opinions and their own health reasons, so I’ll follow along but if it was up to me it would be a no.”
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