For an company whose success relies upon largely on convincing the general public that it’s protected to congregate and transfer concerning the nation and world, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority does appear, from the skin wanting in, to be caught in duck-and-cover mode in the case of COVID response.
In at the very least the case of month-to-month board of administrators’ conferences, nonetheless, that could be about to alter.
The authority’s Sept. 21 board assembly, its first since June, was once more held in a “digital” surroundings. Whereas the physique met for numerous instances in particular person or in a hybrid mode within the spring, it reverted again to on-line earlier than the summer season break and remained there in September.
“We’re persevering with to protect towards . . . any unfold,” the company’s president/CEO, Jack Potter, mentioned on the assembly, noting that masking stays required within the company’s places of work.
Potter mentioned the authority remains to be reporting excessive case numbers amongst employees, and mentioned the restrictions are designed to advertise well being and security among the many workforce.
On the similar assembly, nonetheless, authority chairman William Sudow mentioned it was his “expectation” that the board will meet in particular person in October except “there are hostile developments.”
In-person attendance can be restricted to board members and employees; the general public would be capable to view the assembly on-line.
A federal choose in April dominated that the federal authorities’s masks mandate referring to airports and industrial plane was an overreach of authority. Whereas some airports maintained masking necessities for vacationers, most (together with these within the Washington space) formally or informally dropped them comparatively rapidly.
However there have been stragglers.
Earlier this month, New York’s Democratic governor – locked in what may evolve right into a surprisingly tight election battle – formally eradicated that state’s masks mandate for public-transportation services, together with airports, though each compliance and enforcement had been largely ignored for months.
