The City of Durham and Durham County will end their mask mandates, nearly two years after the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Durham.

The mandate will be lifted March 7 at 12:01 a.m.

The Board of County Commissioners agreed Monday to follow Durham County Health Director Rod Jenkins’ recommendation.

Nearly two weeks ago, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper encouraged local governments and school districts to end mask mandates statewide. There hasn’t been a statewide mandate since last summer, but the governor cited increased vaccination rates and stabilizing COVID-19 rates as reasons for local governments to drop the requirement.

Jenkins advised the board that COVID cases in Durham County are still above 200 per 100,000 residents, but he said he expects that to fall below 200 cases by the end of the week.

“With the CDC metrics, Durham is still in the high transmission category,” Jenkins said. “But our models show that our percent positive has been below five percent for two consecutive weeks.”

He recommended the county and city lift the indoor mask mandate that has been in place since last summer. The county detected its first cases in March 2020.

Chair Brenda Howerton confirmed that the Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal was included in the decision.

“The mayor, city attorneys, Duke – all community partners – we’re all in this together,” she said.

Wake County, the City of Raleigh and other Wake County municipalities dropped their mask requirements on Friday. Orange County, including Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough, have said they will keep their mandate in place and have not said when they might drop it.

Durham County leaders have been among those in the Triangle to uphold mask mandates locally.

Last week, the Durham school board voted unanimously for students and teachers to continue to be required to wear masks in schools, despite other school districts making them optional.

“As far as schools, they have a vote once a month and we meet every Monday. And so, I look forward to having further discussion with Superintendent [Pascal] Mubenga and staff,” Jenkins said.

Commissioner Heidi Carter encouraged residents to get boosters and amplified the county’s campaign to get vaccines and booster shots.

All Durham vaccination clinics are open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. All vaccination sites can be found using the state’s COVID-19 vaccine finder website.