Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Jefferson County's face-mask mandate will end 10 days earlier than expected, public health officials announced Monday.
The public health order requiring people to be masked while in indoor, public …
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Jefferson County's face-mask mandate will end 10 days earlier than expected, public health officials announced Monday.
The public health order requiring people to be masked while in indoor, public places will end at 11:59 p.m. Friday, March 11.
The restrictions will end at the same time the state of Washington ends its masking order.
Moving the date up was a tough but necessary call, said Dr. Allison Berry, Health Officer for Jefferson County.
“I am making this difficult decision because it is frankly untenable to maintain our mask mandate longer,” Berry said.
“However, I continue to strongly recommend masking in indoor spaces until our case rates reach a safer threshold,” she added.
County health officials said the date change follows updated guidance the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was issued last week.
Berry said she will continue to recommend that people voluntarily wear masks indoors.
The current two-week case rate in Jefferson County is 525 per 100,000 people.
She has consistently said a case rate of fewer than 100 cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day period needs to be met before unmasking in indoor spaces should be considered safe.
Berry also recommended that high-risk individuals wait until the case rate drops below 50 cases per 100,000 before unmasking.
Businesses can still require visitors to wear masks, even after the mask mandate ends later this month.
Berry encouraged the community to support the decision of any businesses that choose to maintain a masking policy.
2 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
MargeS
Wanted to remind people that COVID-19 test kits are available through the Postal Service. Sign up, it's easy, takes about two days to get them. I have a cold, glad it wasn't Covid. I will go back to wearing a mask. Stay safe.
Friday, March 25, 2022 Report this
BoatFixx
Masks In The Public Are Useless.
"We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic." -New England Journal Of Medicine, 05/21/2020, Michael Klompas, M.D., M.P.H., Charles A. Morris, M.D., M.P.H., Julia Sinclair, M.B.A., Madelyn Pearson, D.N.P., R.N., and Erica S. Shenoy, M.D., Ph.D.
Tuesday, March 29, 2022 Report this