By The FirstThe White House dropped its years-long mask mandate policy Monday just 24 hours before Joe Biden is set to deliver his State of the Union address before Congress.
“The White House’s decision follows a similar one from Congress’ Office of the Attending Physician, who said that masks will be optional on the House floor for the president’s speech, likely avoiding the optics of masked lawmakers gathered for the event, two years into the coronavirus pandemic,” reports Fox News.
“The nation’s capital is now in an area considered low risk under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new metrics, which place less of a focus on positive test results and more on what’s happening in community hospitals. The new system greatly changes the look of the CDC’s risk map and puts more than 70% of the U.S. population in counties where the coronavirus is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. Healthy people in those risk areas can stop wearing masks indoors, the agency said,” adds Fox.
New York City officials will also drop the mandate and its vaccine passport program starting March 7.
Read the full report here.
