What you need to know about the mask requirements

Wearing masks, social distancing, frequent handwashing, and staying up to date on your vaccinations will help us end the COVID-19 pandemic.

The City of Boston indoor mask requirement helps us all protect one another with the simple step of wearing a mask. 

WHEN AND WHERE TO WEAR A MASK

• In all indoor public settings, venues, gatherings, and any businesses that interact with the public in the City of Boston.
• Indoors on the premises of a business, or place of assembly or other place that is open to members of the public, including but not limited to retail establishments, restaurants, bars, performance venues, gyms and fitness centers, social clubs, event spaces, function rooms, ballrooms or ballhalls (including private invitation-only events and functions) and municipal buildings. 
• Restaurant, indoor bar and dance venue customers may only remove face coverings when actively eating or drinking. Patrons standing or ordering at the bar must be masked. Guests must be masked on indoor dance floors.
• City of Boston public buildings will remain under a mask wearing requirement (including libraries, youth centers etc).
• Boston Public Schools buildings, school buses and other means of school transportation.
• On planes, trains, buses, ferries, taxis and ride-shares, and all other forms of public transport.
• In transportation hubs like airports, bus terminals, train stations, marinas, seaports or other ports, MBTA stations, or any other area that provides transportation.
• Any shelters and cooling centers.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• If you’re not fully vaccinated yet, please get vaccinated. If it has been 5 months since your second Pfizer or Moderna dose or two months since a Johnson & Johnson dose, please get a booster at any of the City of Boston vaccination sites. 
• It is strongly recommended that masks be worn at a private indoor setting with people outside your household.
• It is strongly recommended that masks be worn in crowded outdoor settings or events when social distancing is not possible, regardless of vaccination status. 
• Choose a mask or face covering that fits snugly against your nose and chin with no large gaps around the sides of the face. 
• Choose a mask or face covering that has two or more layers of tightly woven or non-woven material AND that you will be comfortable wearing.
• Due to the more transmissible omicron variant, consider wearing a disposable surgical mask, or if you will be in close contact with the public, a KN95 mask.
• For more information please see the CDC's guide to masks.