Commissioners rescind mask mandate in county offices

Masks are no longer required in Putnam County offices.

The Putnam County Commissioners voted 2-0 on Monday morning to rescind the mask mandate put in place more than a month ago as COVID-19 cases rose in the midst of the omicron variant surge.

Commissioner Tom Helmer made the motion, which was seconded by David Berry. Commissioner Rick Woodall was not in attendance Monday.

The policy change was effective immediately.

While the Commissioners did not cite what went into the decision, cases and infection rates have been falling quickly in the county over the course of recent weeks.

When the county returned to a mask mandate in January, the Commissioners tied the decision to the ISDH red rating, which is the highest level of alert.

While Putnam County continued to be in the red as of the most recent ISDH weekly ratings last Wednesday, the data had fallen precipitously.

As of the week ending Feb. 14, Putnam had a weekly case rate of 268 per 100,000 residents and a seven-day positivity rate of 20 percent.

At one point last month, the weekly cases per 100,000 topped 1,500, while the positivity rate was above 30 percent.

The minimum threshold for the red level is 200 cases per 100,000 and 15 percent positivity. However, even if one were to drop below the threshold for one or both metrics for the ratings released later this week, it would be at least an additional week before the county would drop to an orange rating or better, as metrics must fall below the threshold for two consecutive weeks before the ISDH reduces the rating.

While final numbers are not available for the new week, the preliminary data suggests a continued drop.