The Clallam County public health order requiring masking in indoor public places will be rescinded earlier than planned, county officials announced earlier this week.
That order will now lift Friday, March 11 at 11:59 p.m., the same time Washington state lifts its masking order — also ahead of schedule.
The date changes follow updated guidance that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued last week.
“I am making this difficult decision because I don’t believe that we can feasibly maintain our mask mandate longer than the state,” Dr. Allison Berry, health officer for Clallam and Jefferson counties, said in a press release.
While state masking mandates are set to be lifted, Berry still encourages residents to decide to wear masks indoors in public places until at least March 21.
“I can say this announcement came as a bit of a surprise to us,” she said. “The CDC’s mask guidance has very high threshold cutoffs, which I do think will increase the probability that we will see either a plateauing in case rates that are relatively high or another surge.
“I don’t plan to expand the health order just for Jefferson and Clallam counties because I just don’t think it’s tenable to do so, but I do strongly recommend that our citizens continue to mask at least until the 21st,” Berry said.
Both Clallam and Jefferson County’s case rates continue to drop.
Clallam’s current case rate is 450 cases per 100,000 population during the past two weeks. It added 46 new cases over the weekend, bringing total case numbers since the pandemic began from 10,771 to 10,757.
Jefferson County’s case rate was updated Friday to 525 per 100,000 cases during the past two weeks. It added 36 new cases over the weekend to bring the total case numbers from 3,030 to 3,066 since the pandemic began.
Masks will still be required in medical, long-term care and correctional facilities as well as public transportation.
Berry recommends reaching a case rate of fewer than 100 cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day period before unmasking in indoor spaces. She recommends high-risk individuals wait until that rate drops below 50.
School masking
Public school districts can make their own regulations, according to the governor’s office, and more guidance is expected from the state in a few days.
Joan Zook, interim superintendent for the Sequim School District, said at the Sequim School Board’s Feb. 22 meeting that just because the mask mandate is schedule to be lifted, “it is within realm of possibility that students could go back to masking … if COVID rates go back up.”
Masking on school buses is still a federal requirement, she noted.
Zook also noted at the school board meeting that the district will not allow bullying toward those who chose to wear masks or those who chose not to.
She said school officials are predicting an uptick in COVID numbers following the “unmasking.”
“We hope that we don’t have any serious issues,” Zook said.
Business, hospital masking
Private business owners will be allowed to request that customers and employees wear masks to protect vulnerable customers and staff.
One of the big concerns is for hospitals, Berry said.
“Our hospitals are just barely coming out of a critical time,” she said. “They’re not even all the way out of it, so in Clallam and Jefferson, we’re still in the high-risk category.
“So the worry is that this may cause back-to-back stress on our hospitals,” Berry said.
Eight Clallam County residents were reported hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday. Three were at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, and two were in the intensive care unit (ICU). The other five residents were in hospitals out of the county.
Four Jefferson County residents were reported hospitalized with COVID-19, one in the ICU at Jefferson Healthcare in Port Townsend, another in OMC’s ICU and the remaining two in hospitals outside the county.
