Outdoor Masking No Longer Required In Nashville

Masks are no longer required outdoors in Nashville, though it was always a difficult requirement to enforce.

The Board of Health in Nashville issued a new order on Friday.

Nashville’s mask mandate has been updated and these are the major changes to it. You can find the full order at https://t.co/LEFI8p3Ne7 under the “Public Health Orders” tab. pic.twitter.com/QHquVMKus0

— NashvilleHealth (@NashvilleHealth) April 9, 2021

City health officials still want people masking outside if they’re in close proximity to others. But, it’s no longer a mandate.

The looser rules primarily effect downtown’s tourist district, where police and public health workers have been asking people to cover their faces for the better part of a year. The city’s mask mandate took effect June 25, 2020.

Nashville still hasn’t set a timetable for allowing the indoors mask mandate to expire, even as several other cities in Tennessee have announced end dates.

One of the few blanket exceptions to the indoor masking policy in Davidson County is inside a building owned or operated by the state of Tennessee, such as the state capitol complex or state offices. Gov. Bill Lee has never required masks, though he has given counties the authority to enforce a local mandate.