Gov. Jay Inslee said he will keep the indoor mask requirement in effect until March 21 until recent information coming from the CDC on Friday. The CDC’s new guidance on mask-wearing states that the most of Washington state can go maskless immediately.
The Gov to the media that there will be a broader discussion with the Department of Health about its implications for the state.
The CDC created a color code system for each county in the country from a series of metrics based on a community’s hospital capacity and the rate of new COVID hospitalizations.
The colors are green, yellow and orange. Green means low impact on the area’s healthcare system and low levels of severe disease. Yellow means some impact on the healthcare system and more people with severe disease. Orange means a high potential for healthcare system strain and a high level of severe disease.
Orange is significant. The CDC suggested that everyone in an orange county wears a mask in public indoor settings including schools. The CDC states that people may choose to wear a mask at any time but those with symptoms, a positive test or exposure to COVID should wear a mask. Those counties are: Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Jefferson, Pierce, Cowlitz, Wahkiakum, Clallam and Pierce.
The Gov’s office told the media that “COVID trends are declining, but still remain very high relative to other waves over the pandemic.” A majority of Washington counties are Republicans that often refuse to follow mask requirements.
The Governor has set up points of reference to lifting the indoor mask requirement, one being the seven-day average of new COVID hospitalizations per 100,000 people. The last reported number was 79 per 100,000 on Feb. 22. The new recommendations don’t change the requirement to wear masks on public transportation.
