Mask advisory issued in Provincetown after COVID-19 outbreak

A mask advisory has been put in place in Provincetown, Mass., after a coronavirus outbreak occurred in the popular Cape Cod vacation destination.

At an emergency meeting for the town called on Monday, Provincetown’s Board of Health voted to tell individuals to wear masks indoors regardless of their vaccination status, NBC News reported.

A press release from the town’s Board of Health and the Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment said there were 132 coronavirus cases reported to the state from the town as of Friday.

Town Manager Alex Morse told ABC News the “vast majority” of the cases are among individuals who have been fully vaccinated.

Among the infections, 89 were from Massachusetts residents. The rest are from travelers.

Along with the recommended mask mandate, businesses with limited space to practice social distancing are “strongly advised to enforce vaccine verification prior to admittance,” according to NBC.

The board will also consider declaring a public health emergency if the cases get worse in the upcoming weeks. 

“You can be confident that, if we don’t see an inflection in this in the next three weeks, that I will call us back into session and we will look at declaring a public health emergency, but I want the public health officials to tell us that they think that that’s correct,” Provincetown Board of Health Chairman Stephen Katsurinis said.

The mask mandate and rise in cases come as the delta variant of the coronavirus has been causing a spike in cases across the country at the same time vaccination rates lag.

Counties and towns on both the East and West coasts are reimplementing mask requirements to deal with the rise in cases.