Inslee asked to drop masks after new CDC guidance

(The Center Square) – Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s administration has so far been noncommittal about what it will do in response to the Centers for Disease and Prevention’s (CDC) new guidance about masking. That does not sit well with the highest-ranking Republican in the state House.

“The Governor should conform to the CDC guidance immediately,” House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox told The Center Square in an email. “Individuals, businesses and especially local school boards have been subjected to endless turmoil because of the Governor’s opaque and authoritarian approach. It’s time to lay down his emergency powers and conform to what nearly every state in our country has already done.”

Inslee’s public mask mandate is set to expire in most indoor spaces, including schools, on March 21. That would make Washington the last state in the continental United States to have an indoor mask mandate. Only Hawaii has yet to announce a sunset date for its mandatory masking.

The CDC’s new guidance Friday broke the United States down by county, and provided a color coded map. Green counties were ones with low COVID concentrations, yellow counties had a medium concentration, and orange ones had high concentrations.

The CDC’s immediate guidance fit into this stoplight theme. If residents live in a green county, the CDC advises only that they “Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines” and “Get tested if you have symptoms.”

For yellow counties, the CDC adds, “If you are at high risk for severe illness, talk to your healthcare provider about whether you need to wear a mask and take other precautions.”

Only in orange counties with the highest concentrations of COVID does the agency continue to advise that people “Wear a mask indoors in public.”

The governor’s office was asked to comment on whether it might speed up the mandate’s expiration in light of the CDC’s new guidance, particularly in counties that are marked green or yellow, which is most of the state.

“We have not had a chance to review the new guidance,” Mike Faulk, deputy communications officer for Inslee’s office, told The Center Square Friday afternoon.

“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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