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MARTA no longer requiring masks on buses, trains

A spokesperson for MARTA said the agency won't be enforcing the mask mandate.

ATLANTA — MARTA is no longer requiring passengers on trains and busses to wear masks.

The transit authority said Tuesday officials are not enforcing the mask mandate "until further notice."

"If customers and employees want to continue wearing masks while on the transit system, they are free to do but masks are not required at this time," a MARTA spokesperson said in a statement to 11Alive. 

The announcement comes just a day after a federal judge ruled against a national mask mandate for mass transit on Monday. Other Atlanta agencies, like Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and Uber, also revealed they would be dropping the mask requirement.

In the 59-page lawsuit ruling, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its authority in issuing the original health order on which the TSA directive was based. She also said the order was fatally flawed because the CDC didn't follow proper rulemaking procedures.

The Justice Department declined to comment on whether it would seek an emergency stay to block the judge’s order. The CDC also declined to comment.

The CDC had recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire Monday, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S. But the court ruling puts that decision on hold.

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