On Monday, Feb. 28, PG County Executive Angela Alsobrooks lifted the county’s indoor mask mandate after seeing a big drop in COVID-19 numbers after Omicron.

Because of this, the University of Maryland in College Park, which is right down the street from Parkdale, decided to end their indoor mask mandates for home games. Could this work at Parkdale?

Based on the current state of the pandemic, it would not make sense for Parkdale to remove masks from home games.

According to a New York Times article, it stated, “200,000 new infections were being announced each day and when the country was reporting more than 17,000 deaths a week, more than at any other point in the pandemic except last winter.”

Removing the masks would be a risk for students and other people who are in the game. because everyone would be breathing the same air and people would be too close to each other. The CDC has been suggesting from the beginning that people should be six feet apart, but not everyone follows this recommendation.

 Some people are not vaccinated and that is a problem because the virus would be transmitted and it would never go away.

According to another article, masks have been proven to cut down on COVID-19 deaths. However, nearly two years into the pandemic and with vaccination availability rising, officials are still struggling to get people unvaccinated.  

In Riverdale, where Parkdale is located, 69.9 percent  have at least one dose of the vaccine compared to all of Prince George’s County, with 86.5 percent having the vaccine and Maryland with 74.4 percent of people who have the vaccine.  

Meanwhile, infection rates in some places are still there. In Prince George’s County, 482 cases have occurred between March 1st and 14th.. 

This shows that masks should not be removed at home games because it is not safe. The vaccine saves people’s lives, and  masks should still be worn because that would keep people more safe. 

Some people might say that masks are a problem for people’s health because they are breathing the same air and not breathing fresh air, but masks are one of the ways to keep people safe from COVID-19. 

The virus is still present and will keep sending people to the hospital if people don’t wear a mask.But also if you’re sick, a mask can help keep your germs from infecting others, and if you’re healthy, a mask can help keep respiratory droplets from someone who is sick from landing in your nose and mouth.