Washington will be one of three West Coast states to remove its mandate on wearing masks indoors in most settings on March 12, Gov. Jay Inslee announced Monday.
In a Feb. 28 press conference, the governor announced the state will speed up its removal of the mandate from March 21 to more than a week earlier.
“We are turning a page in our fight against the COVID virus,” Inslee said.
He said with “significantly declining” disease activity, Washington was able to make the adjustment to its schedule on reducing the measures it has taken to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
The lifting of the mandate includes most indoor settings, including schools. Health care, long-term care and correctional facilities are still subject to the masking requirement.
Inslee said the state saw a “consistent level of reduction” in its epidemiological curve in the past month, and hospitalizations associated with COVID-19 have also dropped “quite dramatically.”
“The rate of decline is very significant, and given the fact that this has been the pattern across the world, really, we are confident that we can accelerate our demasking protocols, if you will, going forward,” Inslee said.
The shift in the timeline is in part a result of new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last week, which states masks are recommended, but optional, in a variety of settings.
Inslee said he believes the new CDC guidance reflected Washington’s own guidance regarding a focus on hospitalization rates for making decisions about pandemic response. He added business owners will be able to set their own requirements on masking as well, as could local health jurisdictions.
Washington State Secretary of Health Umair Shah said the announcement is a turning point in the state’s handling of the pandemic.
“This is a day of both hope and empowerment as we continue to see improvement in both cases and hospitalizations across our state,” Shah said.
Shifting the timeline forward is a “direct result” of the state’s efforts based on science, Shah said. He acknowledged the work Washingtonians have done as they followed protocols causing the state to handle the pandemic better than others.
“This has been a tough two years for everyone, we know that,” Shah said. “But those who have gotten their vaccines, worn their masks and followed public health guidance during this time, I really want to say ‘thank you’ to all of you for doing so.”
Though Washington is seeing success, Shah remarked it “was not a time to throw caution to the wind,” as the pandemic is not over.
“(We are) watching for other variants, not just in our state (but) across the country, across the globe,” Shah said. “We will do everything we can to continue to protect Washingtonians.”
