Officially put in motion this past week, the long-lasting mask requirement stipulation will no longer be enforced as of Wednesday, April 18, 2022. According to a previous court order, the process to release this specific demand initially commenced back on January 29 of last year by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stating masks on public transportation hubs and at transportation conveyances are no longer imposed by law enforcement officials. This motion was later updated over a year later on February 25, 2022, announcing the updated version of the decreasing mask mandate towards “public or private school systems, including early care and education/child care programs,” CDC representatives stated.
“CDC is exercising its enforcement discretion to not require that people wear masks on buses or vans operated by public or private school systems,” the CDC announced on their website. They went on to elaborate on their thoughts on the future of COVID-19 precautions: “CDC previously announced that it would use enforcement discretion to not require people to wear a mask in outdoor areas of conveyances (if such outdoor areas exist on the conveyance) or while outdoors at transportation hubs… CDC will continue to evaluate the requirements of its order and determine whether additional changes may be warranted.”
Aside from buses and trains, other private transportation systems such as Uber and Lyft have also confirmed that they too will be removing all mask requirements from their businesses: This declaration comes just one day after the CDC instituted their own. A federal judge recently overturned this specific order, before officially being publicized in a press release stating that wearing masks will now be an optional act ‘for everyone in the car,’ along with no longer demanding the windows to be open or for passengers to remain in the backseat of the vehicle.