GREENSBORO, N.C. — EDITOR'S NOTE: The video associated with this article is from a previous story.
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to meet as a board of health to consider changes to the county's mask mandate.
The meeting is scheduled for November 15 and will be virtual.
The vote came after hearing from local health experts about COVID spread in our area.
Back in August, the board said it wanted to see a 70 percent vaccination rate or a percent of positive cases at or below five percent for three weeks before making changes.
Right now, about 54 percent of people are fully vaccinated and the county has been at an average of below five percent for the past three weeks.
The CDC still considers Guilford County to be at high risk for community transmission of the virus but health experts see that continuing to go down.
"I don't really think that COVID is going to be anywhere near the problem that it was last year but it will still be here," Dr. Christopher Ohl said.
Ohl is an infectious disease expert at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist.
"it looks like these metrics are going to get there in the next couple of weeks," Dr. Iulia Vann said.
Vann is the Guilford County Public Health Director.
There are several cities and counties with mask mandates including Winston-Salem, Mecklenburg County, Raleigh and Durham.
Dr. Christopher Ohl said he's had conversations with Winston-Salem city leaders about lifting the mask mandate before Thanksgiving, allowing for more people to get vaccinated beforehand.
"It will also give people the chance to get the boosters, particularly teachers and people who are in public-facing areas because when the masks come off we would like to have some vaccine back up for that," Dr. Ohl said.
It is not clear what changes if any commissioners will make to the mask mandate.