Boston to Again Require Masks Indoors

Chris Lisinski

Everyone ages 2 and older regardless of vaccination status will be required to wear a mask in all indoor public settings in Boston starting next week, Mayor Kim Janey announced Friday, linking the revived mandate to the impending school year and spread of the Delta variant.

The new order from the Boston Public Health Commission takes effect at 8 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 27 in retail stores, restaurants, bars, performance venues, event spaces, social clubs and municipal buildings across the city. Gatherings in places of worship will be exempt from the order, as will private residences, private buildings inaccessible to the public, and performers who maintain six feet of distance from their audiences. Masks will be required to order at a bar, but may be removed when eating or drinking.

“There is nothing more important than Boston’s safe recovery, reopening, and renewal from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” Janey said in a statement. “We know that masks work best when everyone wears one. Requiring masks indoors is a proactive public health measure to limit transmission of the Delta variant, boost the public confidence in our businesses and venues, and protect the residents of our city who are too young for vaccination.”

Janey said the new mask mandate is part of a “five-point plan” to address the more infectious Delta variant alongside ensuring equitable access to vaccines and booster shots, a vaccine-or-testing requirement for city workers, HVAC improvements in schools, and a mask mandate in schools and city buildings. Officials said Friday that they unveiled the public mask mandate ahead of the 2021-2022 school year, when more than 50,000 Boston Public School students will start classes and more than 50,000 college students will arrive in Boston.