State College Relaxes Masking Requirements, Gathering Limits

State College will follow Centers for Disease Control and state Department of Health guidance and no longer require masks indoors for people fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Borough council voted 5-2 on Friday afternoon to amend State College’s COVID-19 ordinance to simply follow the state and federal guidelines for masking.

Council also approved increasing the limit on outdoor gatherings at residential properties from 25 to 100 people and indoor gatherings from 25 to 50. Outdoor gatherings on municipal property increase from 50 to 100 people.

A provision that required masking while waiting in lines to enter businesses was eliminated entirely. The ordinance otherwise was previously was amended to follow CDC and DOH guidance on outdoor masking.

The changes were recommended by the Board of Health following a meeting on Wednesday. The ordinance remains in effect until July 31 or until the Department of Health or Centre Region Council of Governments rescind their emergency declarations. Violations resulting in citations continue to carry a $300 fine.

Unvaccinated people are still required to wear masks indoors in buildings open to the public, though as several council members pointed out, there is no practical way to enforce that.

“The same people who don’t want to mask are the same people who don’t want to get vaccinated,” Councilwoman Janet Engeman said. “So encountering someone without a mask doesn’t mean they are a vaccinated person.”

Engeman and Councilwoman Katherine Yeaple were the two “no” votes. Yeaple, a registered nurse, said the transmission of COVID-19 is far less likely outdoors than indoors and, like Engeman, said there is no way to know who is vaccinated.

Councilwoman Deanna Behring, who voted in favor of the amendments, said that while she had heard from residents who want the borough to align with the state and federal guidelines, she also heard from families with young children who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated and wanted some assurance that unvaccinated people would continue to be masked indoors in public.

On May 13, the Pennsylvania health department updated its order to state that anyone who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer needs to wear a mask or practice physical distancing in most places, indoors and outdoors, following CDC guidance announced the same day.

The guidance does require masks to be worn in some circumstances, regardless of vaccination status. Those include in doctors’ offices, hospitals, long-term care facilities, homeless shelters and prisons and on airplanes, buses and other public transportation.

Local governments, businesses and organizations still can continue to enforce their own restrictions as they see fit.

Assistant Borough Manager Tom King said, however, that State College’s continuing mask requirement resulted in widespread confusion among residents and requests that the borough follow state and federal guidelines.

Councilman Evan Myers said he thought the ordinance should be rescinded entirely and that the borough should follow DOH orders on all mitigation measures. Most of those statewide measures will be lifted on May 31, though Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration has said masking for unvaccinated people will remain in effect until 70% of Pennsylvania’s adult population is fully vaccinated.

“I think council was out in front of this months ago, to follow the science, to mask, social distance, push vaccines,” Myers said. “I know every council member was criticized by some quarters to do that. Now here we are working to follow the science again and that is that the vaccines and other things we have done are working…”

He later added, “My feeling is we either follow the science and we believe the scientists, or we don’t. We can’t pick and choose which parts we want to follow. I’m not a medical expert. Maybe there’s some folks on here that are and that’s fine. But the Department of Health is nothing but medical experts… By following at one point when we really believed it and by saying ‘Well, we’re not quite sure now,’ is the precise criticism that opponents have said to us ‘Well you’re picking and choosing what you want to believe.’”

Eleven members of the public provided comment during the meeting, nine of whom said they appreciated the actions council has taken through the pandemic but urged that the ordinance be updated to drop masking for vaccinated people or to expand the number of people allowed at residential gatherings.

Borough council candidates Divine Lipscomb and Gopal Balachandran both said the State College should continue following the recommendations of health experts.

“We can’t nitpick at the science…,” Lipscomb said. “I walk along Beaver and College almost everyday and people are masked and umasked. We do not know who is vaccinated and who is not. People are going to behave the way they behave regardless. But those who are vaccinated are going to start to feel like we are holding them hostage.”

Several business owners and managers spoke in favor of amending the ordinance.

Among them was Edward Tubbs, CEO of State College-based hotel and restaurant operator Hospitality Asset Management Company. He said that it has been a difficult year for businesses and employees, and in an already challenging labor market requiring vaccinated employees to wear masks when state and federal guidelines suggest otherwise is discouraging

He added that at the company’s properties in other towns and counties, they have been surprised to find how many people continue to wear masks even though they are not required.

“Personal responsibility is where we need to be focusing at this point,” Tubbs said. “I think the vaccines and ordinances that have been in play for 14 months have gotten us to a point that it’s time to trust our citizens and residents of our county and allow people to go back to their lives as they feel is appropriate for their individual safety and their family safety. I think businesses will do the same.”

Matt Dixon, the manager of the Westerly Parkway Weis Markets, the only full-sized supermarket within the borough, said his store has followed mitigation orders “to a T” throughout the pandemic, with employees refusing service to customers who refused to wear masks.

But, he said, his staff have felt increasingly at risk from confrontations with customers who won’t wear a mask. Weis corporate policy is now to allow vaccinated people in the store without a mask, and supermarkets just down the road no longer require masks, he said.

“We can no longer enforce it. It is a risk,” he said. “I think it’s done well for the community and for the store. It’s just not consistent anymore.”

Lee Anne Jeffries, executive director of the Downtown State College Improvement District, said “there is a fatigue” in the local business community and owners need to continuously explain why the ordinance is inconsistent with DOH and CDC guidelines. Some have to deal with arguments from customers and decide whether they need to ask them to leave.

“This is obviously coming off a yearlong deficit in revenue. This their time for recovery and this is going to be an issue for them moving forward if we don’t follow the CDC and Department of Health guidelines with the ordinance,” Jeffries said. “I’m concerned this is going to affect their bottom line as it’s been such a challenging year… Any way we can minimize the friction that our merchants are having with the public, the confusion that the public has coming downtown and not understanding why it is and what exactly they need to do… It is very confusing and we all want to do the right thing. Our merchants want to do the right thing and they want to stay in business.”

Council initially voted 5-2 to reject the amendments, but after the votes were made, Myers changed his to a yes, followed by Councilwoman Theresa Lafer and Councilman Peter Marshall. Myers first voted no because he wanted the ordinance rescinded entirely. Lafer initially indicated she was in favor of keeping the indoor masking requirements but as the meeting went on seemed to soften her position.

King said that since the first version of the ordinance was enacted last August, State College police have responded to 457 calls about potential violations. Of those, 128 calls resulted in 150 citations, 220 resulted in warnings and 109 were determined to be unfounded.

Elsewhere in the Centre Region, Patton and College townships previously updated their COVID-19 ordinances to align masking policies with DOH orders. College Township Council voted on Thursday night to rescind the ordinance completely as of May 31.

Ferguson Township’s ordinance contains specific masking and gathering provisions, but supervisors are expected to vote on June 7 to align the masking policy with state and federal guidelines and increase outdoor gathering limits to 100 people.

Penn State officials said on May 14 that while the university evaluates the new guidance, “masking and physical distancing is expected by all individuals — regardless of vaccination status — inside Penn State campus buildings and on public transportation across all campuses.”