Extended again: Here’s (maybe) how much longer you’ll have to wear a mask on a plane
Planning to get on a flight in the next few weeks? You’ll still need to make sure to pack a mask.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday the mask mandate for public transit — airports, planes, trains, buses — would be extended another 15 days to May 3. The mandate was previously set to expire April 18.
The CDC said the spread of the omicron subvariant of the coronavirus known as BA.2, which now makes up more than 85% of new virus cases in the U.S., contributed to its decision to extend the mask requirement.
“In order to assess the potential impact the rise of cases has on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health care system capacity, the CDC order will remain in place at this time,” the agency said in a statement.
The mask mandate has been extended several times since February 2021.
Opposition to the mandate has steadily grown, particularly from hospitality and travel industry groups, in recent months. Critics have often cited how the number of new coronavirus cases has fallen greatly since the most recent wave during the winter.
“While the public health benefits of these policies have greatly diminished, the economic costs associated with maintaining these measures are significant,” Airlines for America, the U.S. Travel Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the American Hotel and Lodging Association wrote in a letter to the CDC on April 8.
Public health experts, however, have said for years that the confined spaces of most public transit greatly increase the risk of spreading or being exposed to COVID-19. Masks, they say, reduce that risk. Proponents of the mandate not only cite the BA.2 variant for why the mandate should be extended but also the rise in cases in New York, Washington, D.C., and parts of Europe.
“It is true that planes have excellent ventilation infiltration, but they don’t protect against these close range exposures and people are close in airplanes,” Linsey Marr, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Virginia Tech who studies airborne transmission of viruses told The Wall Street Journal. “I think this is wise,” she said of the decision to extend the mask requirement.
This story was originally published April 13, 2022 at 10:44 AM with the headline "Extended again: Here’s (maybe) how much longer you’ll have to wear a mask on a plane."
