Newtown has moved out of the state's Red alert zone for COVID-19 spread into Orange as cases start to decline.   First Selectman Dan Rosenthal's emergency order requiring masks to be worn indoors in public places regardless of vaccine status is in place through October 6th. The Legislative Council will discuss the matter at their meeting on that date.  When they authorized the emergency order, Rosenthal noted that if cases go down, the order could end earlier. 

Rosenthal expects people to be civil with one another during this time, and doesn't anticipate businesses getting into fights with patrons over mask wearing.   If a business is blatantly not enforcing the requirement or there's no attempt by employees to masks up, the health district will have conversations first, rather than taking a heavy handed approach.

The governor's executive order early in the pandemic allowed municipalities to appoint a representative, like the police or fire marshal, to conduct enforcement with public health emergency declarations. But Rosenthal says he doesn't want to turn Newtown into a police-state because it's not conducive to recovery.