Vigo County will lift mask mandate

Next week, the state of Indiana will make the mask mandate and advisory.

And Vigo County will do the same.

Good good goodre so long, she3 evening and thanks for joining us.

Vigo county officials are addressing how the county will move forward when indiana loosens restrictions.

Next tuesday -- the state's mask mandate will be downgraded to an advisory.

News 10's sarah lehman is live in our newsroom she has more on what you can expect here in vigo county.

Patrece...rondrell... it's something we have all pretty much gotten used to!

But -- starting next week these masks will no longer be required by state or local health officials.

Indiana governor eric holcomb made the announcement last week.

Starting april 6th the mask mandate for the hoosier state will be lifted.

But -- each county gets to decide if they want to follow those protocols.

"the county commissioners the mayor duke bennett and dr. darren brucken the county health commissioner looked at it and thought what does this do for our county?

" wednesday -- dr. brucken made the annoucement vigo county would follow what governor holcomb announced.

That means starting april 6th the mask mandate specifically in vigo county will be strongly advised but not enforced.

"we strongly recommend people wearing their mask and social distancing.

We are almost where we need to be."

The decision came after they looked over data for the county.

Including hospitilization rates... covid cases... and vaccinations.

Vigo county has also been in the blue level per the state for a few weeks now.

But -- joni wise the vigo county health adminstrator says they will continue to monitor local data metrics.

And if things start falling for the worse again these protocols could change.

"it falls upon us as indivisduals to do the right thing.

Each one of us knows what the right thing is for us so id like to see everyone just continue helping our community trend to a better state of normalcy."

It's important to it's normalcy."

It's normalcy."

It's it's normalcy."

Better state of normalcy."

It's important to note -- schools, hospitals, and state buildings in vigo county will continue to enforce masking.

But -- other business can decide what they want to do!

So -- even though the state and local health officials here are changing it to an advisory... certain businesses could still mandate them reporting live in the newsrooom.

I'm sarah lehman.

News 10 back to you.