Extending Mask Mandate For Airplanes, Public Transportation ‘On The Table’, White House Says

Topline

The Biden administration may continue to require Americans to wear masks on public transportation, airplanes and in airports after the mandate runs out next week, as the White House’s Covid-19 coordinator said Monday the Center for Disease Control and Prevention could rule in the coming days that the mask order shouldn’t be lifted yet amid a new rise in Covid-19 cases.

Travelers make their way through Orlando International Airport on January 2.

SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Key Facts

White House Covid-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said on Today the CDC is developing a “scientific framework” to determine when masks should be required on public transportation like trains, buses and planes once the mask mandate expires on April 18.

Jha said the CDC’s decision on whether to keep requiring masks would be “guided” by that science, and when asked whether that means the mask mandate could stay in place, Jha said “it is absolutely on the table.”

The CDC said when it extended the federal mask mandate in March to April 18 that it would use the extension to create a “framework” for when masks would be required, which would take factors into account like levels of severe illness from Covid-19 or if new variants are emerging.

An announcement on whether the federal mask mandate will stay in place should come out “in the next few days,” Jha said.

Crucial Quote

“Throughout the entire pandemic, we’ve wanted to make decisions based on the evidence and science, and that, I expect, is what we’ll do again this week,” Jha said, though he stressed the decision will largely be up to CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

Chief Critics

Attorneys general from 21 GOP-led states sued the federal government at the end of March over the transportation mask mandate, arguing the nationwide policy violates state sovereignty and the mask order should be overturned. CEOs of major airlines have also called for the Biden administration to end the mandate, writing in a March open letter that the mask requirement no longer matches “the realities of the current epidemiological environment.”

Key Background

Covid-19 cases are starting to go up in a number of areas across the U.S., including New York City and Washington, D.C., driven by the highly transmissible omicron BA.2 subvariant that’s now linked to a majority of Covid-19 cases nationwide. Cases still remain largely flat nationwide, but the rise in cases has sparked fears of a new Covid-19 surge, as other countries like the United Kingdom and China have seen in recent weeks. Jha said Monday that while it’s true cases are rising and “we’ve got to watch this very carefully,” hospitalizations are so far still low and cases are still at a relatively low level. “I think we’ve got to be careful but I don’t think this is a moment where we have to be excessively concerned,” Jha said.

What To Watch For

Whether more mask mandates will be imposed as Covid-19 cases rise. Several universities are reimposing mask requirements, and Philadelphia officials are set to announce Monday whether the city’s mask mandate will go back into effect in response to rising Covid-19 metrics.

Surprising Fact

Recent polls have had conflicting findings when it comes to whether Americans want the federal mask mandate to stay in effect after April 18. A recent Harris poll found 60% of Americans want to keep it in place, and a Morning Consult poll similarly found at least three in five respondents support customers and employees wearing masks on planes. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll was more split, however, with a narrow 51% majority saying they wanted the federal mask mandate to expire.