Provincetown Issues Indoor Mask Mandate Amid Coronavirus Spike

PROVINCETOWN, MA — As the coronavirus continues its resurgence in Provincetown, town officials reimplemented an indoor mask mandate.

The select board and board of health voted unanimously in favor of the mandate in an emergency meeting Sunday. The mandate came after Provincetown COVID-19 cases grew to 430 Saturday. Of those cases, 342 are Massachusetts residents, 153 of whom live in Provincetown.

"We are entering a new stage of COVID," Town Manager Alex Morse said. "COVID, while depressing for many of us, is not going away anytime soon."

Last week the board approved a mask advisory for both inside and outside, but Morse said the advisory wasn't enough to stop the spread.

"If we have a test positivity rate below 3 percent for a period of at least five days, the mandate will shift to an advisory, and if under 1 percent for a period of at least five days, the advisory will be lifted," Morse said. "If test positivity goes over 1 percent, the advisory is reimplemented, and if the test positivity rate goes over 3 percent, the mandate is reimplemented."

The cases stemmed from a busy 4th of July weekend, and officials say about 70 percent of those infected were fully vaccinated. Most vaccinated people in the cluster had no symptoms, or mild ones at most. Officials said just three people have required hospitalization.

Genetic testing is being done at the state Public Health Laboratory to determine whether a variant of concern is associated with the cluster. Provincetown will also begin daily testing of wastewater, which officials said is a valuable surveillance tool for detecting the coronavirus and was done in the community up until the spring.

The Board of Health said the number of cases is expected to rise as more people get tested. Test positivity rates have improved since surveillance of the Provincetown cluster began, falling from 15 percent to 9 percent. A test positivity rate of under 5 percent is considered progress towards cluster containment, while a testing positivity rate below 1 percent is considered fully contained.