Compiled from The Oregonian/OregonLive and the Oregon Capital Chronicle
The governors of Oregon, Washington and California announced Monday that you can ditch your face mask – if you want – for indoor public places, including schools, a week earlier than announced just last Thursday.
In a surprise move, Gov. Kate Brown said Monday that Oregon will join Washington and California to lift all indoor mask mandates March 12 – one week earlier than announced four days ago and more than two weeks earlier than initially planned.
Masks will no longer be required in schools starting March 12, but state officials will recommend they still be used. Lincoln County School District administrators are talking to students, staff, parents and volunteers to help determine what it will do and now plan to announce their decision next week.
The governors’ joint announcement reflects declining cases and hospitalizations across Oregon and the West. It also reflects the movement of the virus, which is blind to borders.
Brown announced the accelerated timeline on the two-year anniversary of the state’s first known COVID-19 infection, saying residents must “learn to live with the virus” while maintaining vigilance going forward.
“Covid-19 does not stop at state borders or county lines,” Brown said in a statement. “On the West Coast, our communities and economies are linked. Together, as we continue to recover from the omicron surge, we will build resiliency and prepare for the next variant and the next pandemic.”
Oregon officials earlier this month announced mask mandates would lift no later than March 31 but indicated requirements for public places could end sooner if hospitalizations plummeted quickly. State officials shifted that timeline last week, moving the date for both schools and public places to March 19.
But Brown and state health officials pivoted again Monday to align with neighboring states.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee originally set the date for school and indoor mandates to end as March 21, but now will sunset both requirements at the end of the day March 11. Gov. Gavin Newsom already lifted California’s indoor mandate for fully vaccinated people Feb. 15, but he has continued to require masks for unvaccinated people and hadn’t previously set a firm date for ending mask requirements in schools. Monday, Newsom announced unvaccinated people will no longer be required to wear masks in indoor public spaces starting Tuesday and the K-12 school mandate will end after March 11.
Local jurisdictions still have options
When the three states remove their indoor and school mandates, they will be among the very last to do so.
Masks will continue to be required in Oregon in high-transmission settings like health care facilities.
Although Oregon is lifting statewide mask mandates, local county governments and school district boards still have the option to continue requiring masks after March 11. Masks will no longer be required on school buses, unless a local district or health agency decides otherwise, state epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger said Monday.
Asked if there’s a risk of entire classrooms having to quarantine after the lifting of the mask mandate, Department of Education Director Colt Gill said schools now have an abundance of tests available, as well as new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on contact tracing and quarantining. His department plans to release new state guidance for schools Wednesday.
Asked if there’s a risk of entire classrooms having to quarantine after the lifting of the mask mandate, Department of Education Director Colt Gill said schools now have an abundance of tests available, as well as new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on contact tracing and quarantining. His department will release new state guidance for schools Wednesday.
“What we’re really talking about here is a shift in responsibility for making sure that our communities are safe,” Gill said in a news conference Monday.
Individual businesses, employers and other organizations in Oregon similarly have the option of requiring masks after March 11.
The end of the mandates will not lift vaccination requirements for health care workers and K-12 educators, which were put in place by state or federal non-emergency authority.
The federal government will require people to cover up on public transportation, including transit systems such as TriMet and airplanes and airports. That federal requirement will expire March 18, but President Biden has the option of extending it.
Hospitalizations dropping fast
Oregon originally ended its mask mandate last summer but quickly restored it as cases spiked during the delta surge. State officials maintained the requirement during the omicron wave, but cases and hospitalizations are now a fraction of earlier highs.
Brown and health officials said when the number dropped to 400 patients – a manageable number that wouldn’t overwhelm the health care system – it would consider eliminating the mandate on indoor public spaces. At the time, the state estimated that date to be around the end of March.
Now, it looks like that goal could be reached sometime in the first week of March. As of Monday, 479 patients who tested positive for the coronavirus were being treated in hospitals across the state. That’s less than half the 1,130 patients at the peak of the omicron surge on Jan. 27.
With the current trajectory, hospitalizations could fall to below pre-omicron levels by next week, Sidelinger said.
Meanwhile, the CDC on Friday put out long-awaited revised guidelines for when Americans should don masks. The CDC says people in areas with “low” COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations can forgo masks. But people at high risk of serious illness in “medium” areas should consult a health care professional about how they should proceed. People in “high” areas should wear masks indoors when with people they don’t live with, and that includes in schools.
As of late last week, the CDC categorized Lincoln County, all of the Portland metro area and Marion County as “medium.” Much of the central and southern part of the state – including Benton, Deschutes, Douglas, Jackson and Lane counties – were “high.”
Brown also announced Thursday that her state of emergency order will end April 1. The emergency order, put in place two years ago, provided the state flexibility to respond to the pandemic by mobilizing volunteer medical professionals in hospitals. The order also gave the state the ability to loosen medical license standards to bring in more nurses, for example. And it gave Oregon access to emergency federal funds, including enhanced benefits for people receiving food assistance.
Most of the governor’s executive orders on Covid-19 were rescinded last year. Brown did mobilize the Oregon National Guard again in January, deploying 1,200 troops to 40 hospitals around the state. The Oregon Military Department said Thursday that troops will demobilize at the end of March.