Gov. Abbott has decided to lift the mask mandate as of Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Even with multiple federal officials have urged states to not abandon COVID-19 precautions. 

He explained “Make no mistake, COVID-19 has not disappeared, but it is clear from the recoveries, vaccinations, reduced hospitalizations, and safe practices that Texans are using that state mandates are no longer needed.” 

Texas will be joining multiple states in the US that do not currently have a requirement to wear masks including Oklahoma, Florida, Mississippi, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Tennessee. According to the National Academy for State Health Policy, Texas will be the most populous state to release the mask mandate. 

This is a big change for Texas, seeing as it was one of the states with the most cases in the country. Most public and private schools in Texas have decided against the mask mandate being lifted to prevent more students from being quarantined such as CCISD. Texas Education Agency guidance has recently allowed for the districts to decide their own mask policy. Such as Magnolia ISD not requiring students or staff to wear masks, although encouraged.

 It was a major issue in late 2020 and early 2021 with more than 5 people getting quarantined at a time due to someone testing positive around them in many schools in CCISD. Soon enough almost anyone you talked to had already tested positive at one point in time. 

As well as retailers, grocery chains, pharmacies and automakers, including Target, Kroger, CVS, Walgreens, Best Buy, Macy’s, JCPenney, Toyota, GM, and others say that masks will still be required at their stores by both employees and customers.

 Masks will still be required on federal property in Texas since President Joe Biden made that mandatory in January, as well as on public transportation.