We’ve been in search of a better way to track whether we should or should not require masks since, well, forever. As we know, not everyone is reporting their positive cases, and this is making the New York Times tracker I’ve been using increasingly less useful. So, after reading what I could on the CDC website, here’s the new policies:
- Outside: Masks are optional
- Inside: One week before the event, we will review the CDC Community Transmission Map. If every county in Massachusetts is marked blue or yellow (Low or Moderate), then masks indoors will be optional. If a single Massachusetts county is orange or red, masks will be required indoors.
- Eating and Drinking Inside: These activities do not magically cause you to stop spreading germs, no matter what you might be told elsewhere. Do NOT eat or drink inside. We may be back at Farley again for the Winter event. We don’t know. If so, we’ll give you an update.
Eating and Drinking Outside: We will move as many tables from the tavern as we can to the area out back, and we’ll use these for meals (people who have attended Witchwood recently know what this looks like). That means we can eat and drink outside without worrying about indoor mask removal. If it is raining or looking like it’s going to rain, we’ll set up the popup tents over this area before game. As a consequence of their being limited space in this area, I’m going to ask two things:
- If it’s the meal time rush, if you can, please finish eating and then give up your seat to someone else to eat. Do not feel forced to do so if you need to sit for other reasons (health, mobility, etc), but be courteous. There’s a lot of you and limited seating.
- Don’t use these tables as a place to store your stuff. I know we do this often, but - again - limited seating. Consider leaving your gear on tables inside, where you can grab it with a mask on.
If you have any questions about the above policies, you may ask them here or at staff@portkatherine.com.
Brian Misamore
Game Director, Port Katherine