Oregon’s statewide mask requirement for indoor public places will be lifted no later than the end of March, health officials announced Monday; and mask requirements for schools will be lifted on March 31. Education and health officials will meet in coming weeks to revise guidance to “ensure schools can continue operating safely and keep students in class” after mask rule is lifted, said Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the state medical officer and epidemiologist. “This will give (school officials) time to look at their community condition — vaccination rates and spread in their community — and decide if they want to implement a local mandate or requirement for schools,” Sidelinger said.
The end of March deadline for lifting statewide mask rules was selected using predictions by local health scientists that COVID-19 related hospitalizations will decrease to 400 or fewer by that time — a level that Oregon experienced before the omicron variant surge. Sidelinger advised that people who aren’t vaccinated, are elderly in congregant settings or have an immune conditions as well as those who live with people at higher risk of COVID-19, should continue to wear a mask.
Gov. Kate Brown has been among the most careful in the nation. Oregon was among the last to lift the outdoor mandate, in November, and Brown’s decision came only after public pressure from Democratic leaders. This decision by Brown comes as governors of Connecticut and New Jersey announced decisions to lift the school mask mandates in coming weeks. In Delaware, the governor announced the mask mandate will lift on Friday.
As of Friday, the most recent data available, 1,092 coronavirus patients were hospitalized in the state. The new mask guidance shouldn’t keep people from wearing masks in any setting if it makes them feel more safe, Allen said.
“Mask wearing for people who are unvaccinated, or for the elderly, for immunocompromised people, or people at higher risk for contracting the disease and for people who are living with someone in one of these categories is still strongly recommended,” Allen said. “Mask wearing is still recommended for people who are in crowded outdoor settings for an extended period.”
