Pa. Relaxes COVID Mask & Distancing Mandates

Following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Pennsylvania is easing its mask mandate to allow people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to gather with other vaccinated people without masks or social distancing.

State health officials said Monday the new rules also apply to vaccinated people gathering with people from a single household who have not been vaccinated but who are considered at low risk of severe disease from the coronavirus.

The health secretary revised the state’s existing masking order to align with recent guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Get our free mobile app

The move comes, however, as Pennsylvania is among a dozen or so states that are seeing an increase in the number of infections and as health officials worry about the effectiveness of the current vaccines against emerging variants of the virus like the U.K. and Brazilian mutations.