SWAMPSCOTT — The town will resume requiring masks in all municipal buildings on Monday as COVID-19 cases rise due to the Delta variant.
In a post on the town’s Facebook page Friday, the town wrote that the new rules will apply to everyone regardless of vaccination status. Buildings included in the new mandate include Town Hall, the library, senior center, Department of Public Works, police station and fire station.
“Unfortunately, after seven weeks of no new cases in the Town of Swampscott, there have been 18 new lab-confirmed cases in the last two weeks alone,” the post reads. “The good news is that vaccinations are highly effective in preventing serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths in those that are fully vaccinated.”
In Swampscott, 75 percent of residents were fully vaccinated as of July 27. Over the course of the pandemic, the town has seen 1,184 lab-confirmed cases of the virus and 19 COVID-related deaths.
Reports from the state have shown that vaccinated people make up approximately 1 percent of confirmed COVID cases, and those who do test positive after receiving the vaccine are much less likely to have severe symptoms.
However, studies have also shown that those who are vaccinated but still test positive for COVID carry similar amounts of the virus as those who are unvaccinated, meaning they are still likely to pass it along to other people.
In Essex County, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website shows COVID transmission to be in the orange or “substantial” range, well within the range in which the agency recommends people wear masks indoors under its current guidance.
Swampscott encouraged its residents who have not gotten vaccinated to do so, noting that vaccines are available locally at CVS, Stop & Shop, Walgreens and Lynn Community Health Center.
“The Swampscott Health Department will continue to closely monitor the trends of the spread of the new variant in Swampscott, regionally, and nationwide,” the town’s website says. “All efforts to continue to mitigate the effects of the virus are based on regional trends, guidance from the CDC, and science. Decisions balance the highly successful efficacy of the vaccination with the fact that we still have a fair number of people who cannot or will not get vaccinated.”
