Bucks Co. Changes Mask Policy As COVID Cases Drop To 6-Month Low

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — New COVID-19 infections continued to decline in Bucks County last week, reaching the lowest levels since early November. The seven-day average of new infections dropped Saturday to 84 per day, and the 575 new cases reported last week was more than 70 percent less than in early April.

As the numbers continue to decline, Bucks County has amended its mask policy for inside county buildings. Fully vaccinated employees and visitors can go mask-free in county buildings except for the prisons and the Neshaminy Manor Nursing Home. Judges in the Court of Common Pleas and Magisterial District Courts also have discretion to order people to wear masks in their courtrooms.

Currently, 53 COVID-19 patients are in Bucks County hospitals, 15 are in intensive care units and seven are on ventilators. Seventeen COVID-19 deaths have occurred in May, raising the pandemic death toll in the county to 1,282.

Improving case numbers and ongoing vaccinations nationwide led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue new guidance for fully vaccinated people, allowing them to get rid of their masks in most settings. While Pennsylvania adopted the guidelines, unvaccinated people are still required to wear masks until 70 percent of adults statewide are vaccinated.

“As the cases fall to low levels, Bucks County is in a terrific position to come out of this,” said David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Health Department. “I am more optimistic now than at any point of the pandemic.”

Damsker urges people who have not been vaccinated to set up an appointment or walk in to one of the county's five vaccination clinics.

More than 212,000 people are fully vaccinated in Bucks County, accounting for more than one-third of the county's population. Since the Pfizer vaccine has been opened to children ages 12 to 15, more than 2,000 children have received a first dose, county health officials said.

To see an interactive map showing Bucks County’s COVID testing locations, please click here.

To see an interactive map showing Bucks County cases reported in the past 30 days, please click here.

Statistics, charts, links to state health department data and other coronavirus-related information can be found on the county’s data portal.

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