CDC mandates wearing masks on public transportation
Santiago Mejia/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images
- The CDC will mandate masks on public transportation starting Monday.
- The agency drafted a similar order back in September that was shot down by the Trump administration.
- Last week, President Biden issued an executive order mandating masks on most forms of domestic travel.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said wearing masks will be mandatory on public transportation starting on Monday.
The order applies to planes, trains, boats, buses, ferries, subways, taxis, and rideshare services such as Lyft and Uber. It also applies to air terminals, train stations, subway stations, seaports, and bus depots.
The order does not apply to children under 2 years old and passengers may briefly remove their face masks to eat and drink.
In September the CDC drafted an order that would have made it compulsory to wear masks on public transportation but it was blocked by President Donald Trump's administration.
Instead, the agency issued guidance in October that strongly recommended all passengers and staff wear face masks on airplanes, ships, trains, buses, subways, rideshares, and taxis.
Read more: Inside Democrats' plans to make sure there's no Trump 2.0
Only days after his inauguration, President Joe Biden signed an executive order mandating mask-wearing on most forms of domestic travel.
"Accordingly, to save lives and allow all Americans, including the millions of people employed in the transportation industry, to travel and work safely, it is the policy of my Administration to implement these public health measures consistent with CDC guidelines on public modes of transportation and at ports of entry to the United States," Biden's executive order reads.
In the US more than 25.9 million people have been infected with the coronavirus and over 436,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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