The Clay County Public Health Center has announced that it has updated its Public Health Emergency Order effective at 5:00 pm on Friday, April 23, 2021. The new revision is set to expire on May 28.

The newly updated order moves the county from Phase 2, Step 4 of the Recovery Plan to Phase 3. Although the Public Health Center is still requiring masks to be worn indoors at places of public accommodation, the new Emergency Order update states masks are not required outdoors when not social distancing. The update also states that social distancing indoors is strongly recommended but no longer required.

Clay County Public Health sites improvements in the number of reported COVID-19 cases, hospital capacity and vaccination rates, as reasons that the county is able move into Phase 3 of its COVID-19 Recovery Plan. The County is still urging citizens to get a vaccine if they have not already received one.

The updated emergency order can be read here .

Additional information about the emergency order and recovery plan can be found at clayhealth.com/recovery.

KPGZ News - Brian Watts contributed to this story