Rachel La Corte | Associated Press
Washington’s March 21 date to lift the statewide mask mandate remains in place for now as state officials review new guidance Friday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that says people in most places can safely take a break from wearing facial coverings.
The new guidance puts more than 70% of the U.S. population in counties where the coronavirus is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. Those are the people who can stop wearing masks, the agency said.
The agency is still advising that people, including schoolchildren, wear masks where the risk of COVID-19 is high. That’s the situation in about 37% of U.S. counties, where about 28% of Americans reside.
Mike Faulk, a spokesman for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, said in an email Friday that the office has not yet had a chance to review the new guidance, and that once that has happened “there will be a broader discussion with the governor’s office and the Department of Health about its implications for our state.”
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The CDC has set up a color-coded map — with counties designated as orange, yellow or green — to help guide local officials and residents. In green counties, local officials can drop any indoor masking rules. Yellow means people at high risk for severe disease should be cautious. Orange designates places where the CDC suggests masking should be universal.
How a county comes to be designated green, yellow or orange will depend on its rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, the share of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and the rate of new cases in the community.
Of Washington’s 39 counties, 9 are orange, or high risk, 15 are yellow and 15 are low-risk green, including King County, the state’s most populous.
On Friday King County’s health officer said it will lift its indoor mask mandate on March 21 so long as local COVID-19 trends hold or improve.
The new CDC recommendations do not change the requirement to wear masks on public transportation and indoors in airports, train stations and bus stations. The CDC guidelines for other indoor spaces aren’t binding, meaning cities and institutions even in areas of low risk may set their own rules. And the agency says people with COVID-19 symptoms or who test positive shouldn’t stop wearing masks.
AP writers Carla K. Johnson and Mike Stobbe contributed.