Washington’s mask mandate will now end March 12th, more than a week sooner than had been announced recently.
Washington, Oregon and California all announced the change in course through a joint press release following new guidelines announced by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention last week. Washington had planned to end it’s mask mandate on March 21st.
The new CDC guidelines removed the strong mask recommendations for most of the country, switching to a county-by-county approach. Counties with “high” levels of transmission are still recommended to have mask requirements indoors. In Washington, nine counties, mostly in central Washington, are still considered to have high levels of transmission.
Looking at the CDC data, Governor Jay Inslee said it is likely as a state, Washington will be out of the high risk category by March 11th.
Inslee says Washington will lay out its plan for the coming months of the pandemic in the next week, with the next phase focusing more on empowering individuals and families, rather than government restrictions. (Spokesman-Review)
