Officials announced Friday that masks will be optional in all University owned or operated facilities, but will remain required in instructional settings, health care facilities and on GW-operated transportation.

Officials said they will continue to monitor COVID-19 transmission rates and may reinstate the mask mandate if deemed necessary. The announcement is the latest shift in COVID health protocols and will align GW policy with other universities in the District.

“We ask that you respect the personal decisions of others who continue to choose to wear a mask,” officials said in an unsigned email to community members.

Georgetown and American universities also require masking in classrooms and medical settings but remain mask optional in other university settings like dining and residence halls. 

“Wearing masks indoors helps to limit exposures and can help reduce infection rates,” University spokesperson Tim Pierce said in an email last week.

Pierce said in an email to The Hatchet last week that the mask mandate would remain in place to “limit exposures.”

Officials ended the biweekly asymptomatic testing requirement for community members in July. Officials also instituted an “isolation in place” protocol for students who test positive for COVID in August and will no longer move COVID-positive students to separate isolation rooms. 

The University’s COVID dashboard reports more than 2,500 community members have gotten tested between Aug. 30 and Sept. 8, with just over 400 community members testing positive in that period.