Framingham Mayor Requests Special Meeting of Board of Health On Mask Mandate

In full transparency, the following is a press release from the City of Framingham submitted to SOURCE media.

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FRAMINGHAM – Mayor Charlie Sisitsky has requested a Special Meeting of the Framingham
Board of Health to discuss the duration of the current Joint Executive Order mandating masks
inside public establishments and to potentially vote on a date to rescind the Order.

The Special Meeting date and agenda are expected to be posted tomorrow, February 17, 2022.

Special meetings require posting at least three business days in advance of the meeting.

The Mayor’s request comes after weeks of continuous conversation and collaboration between
Mayor Sisitsky, Superintendent of Schools Bob Tremblay, and Department of Public Health
Director Alexandra DePalo.

Included in those conversations has been such factors as the changing mandates and guidelines
emanating from Governor Baker and his Department of Elementary and Secondary Education;
the difficulty tracking cases given the many thousands of unreported Rapid Antigen tests; input
from residents, businesses, and teachers; and the spikes in COVID-19 cases that have historically
occurred after school vacation breaks.

In consideration of families making plans for the upcoming holiday weekend and School Vacation
Week, Superintendent Tremblay, Director DePalo, and the Mayor expect to make additional
announcements, after tomorrow’s posting of the Special Meeting, on Thursday and Friday.
The Joint Executive Order, designed to decrease the surge of the COVID Omicron variant, a Joint
Order of the Mayor and Board of Health remains in effect.

That order requires mandatory wearing of masks by staff and customers aged two (2) and over in all public indoor establishments in the City of Framingham. Excluded from the Executive Order are private residences and private workplaces that are not visited by the public.