Gov. Inslee announces people must wear masks when in public
Gov. Jay Inslee has announced that facial coverings will be mandatory in public across the state starting Friday in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.
He also said there will be further requirements regarding businesses in Yakima County.
“Until a vaccine or a cure is developed, this really is going to be our best defense,” the governor said at a virtual press conference Tuesday.
There’s been an uptick in virus activity as the economy has started to reopen, he said, and science increasingly supports that masks work both to protect the person wearing one and others from infection.
The public health order from Secretary of Health John Wiesman will make masks mandatory in indoor or outdoor public places, with some exceptions.
A willful violation of the statewide order is a misdemeanor, the governor said.
Some people are exempt from the requirement: people who are deaf or hard of hearing, while they’re communicating, and children under the age of 2. Children ages 3 to 5 are not required to wear facial coverings, but it’s strongly recommended.
The governor’s office also said there will be times when it’s appropriate to take off a mask, such as sitting at a restaurant at a safe distance from others, or during solo recreation or recreation with household members.
“If you’re alone outdoors, that’s OK as long as you’re in a position where you can actually maintain social distance,” Inslee said.
People waiting at a bus stop shoulder-to-shoulder, for example, need to mask up, he explained.
And he said precautions such as social distancing 6 feet from others, hand washing, staying home when sick, and getting tested for symptoms are still important.
Displaying a graph Tuesday, Inslee said: “What we are seeing is that the number of people that one person infects is now going up,” and he said the graph showed both Western and Eastern Washington being in the “danger zone.”
Inslee already announced Saturday that he’d require masks in Yakima, where coronavirus cases have spiked. A couple weeks ago about a third of Yakima County was donning masks, he said, and over the weekend that rose to about 60 percent.
An example of how bad things are, the governor said: There is no room at the hospital in Yakima County, which means coronavirus patients are being transferred by ambulance to Seattle and elsewhere.
“We do not want to see that condition spread across the state of Washington,” he said. “... We know that this issue is much bigger than Yakima County.”
Besides the statewide mask requirement, a proclamation from the governor also will apply more requirements to Yakima County businesses. It prohibits businesses there from doing business with a customer who isn’t wearing a mask. It would also prohibit individuals from going into a business without a face covering, except for exemptions allowed by the Secretary of Health’s order.
In response to a reporter’s question, Inslee said it’s possible Yakima businesses who don’t comply could face the loss of a business license, fines or injunctive relief.
As for enforcing masks across the state, the governor said he anticipates broad compliance.
“We don’t want to have enforcement of this,” Inslee said. “Ideally there won’t be any criminal or civil sanctions for individuals.”
Answering another question about potential reporting of those not wearing a mask, the governor said the best way to get others to wear a mask is to wear one yourself.
Any style of face covering is OK, he said, but masks need to cover the nose and mouth.
Secretary of Health Wiesman noted that masks need to fit snugly, shouldn’t have holes or tears, and that they should be washed after each use.
With businesses starting to reopen and good weather, Wiesman said he shares Inslee’s concerns that “people have forgotten that we actually have a pandemic.”
He noted that people can spread the virus for two days before developing any symptoms, and that between 20 percent and 40 percent of cases are asymptomatic — people who can spread the virus to others but never show symptoms.
Asked by a reporter about the timeline for counties who might soon be ready to apply for Phase 4, which allows for large gatherings, he said discussions about when they’ll be able to apply are still ongoing.
The main message, Wiesman said: “It is safer at home. It’s safer to stay local. It is safer to still limit our interactions out in the public. This virus has not gone away.”
Gov. Inslee, asked about at what point he thinks a county could be moved back a phase, said: “As far as moving backwards, again, if we saw activity that we were unable to suppress with good masking, and good contract tracing, and good isolation, and we saw a curve that was going to lead to a potential overwhelming of the medical system, that is possible to have to go back in phases. We cannot rule that out.”
But with measures such as good masking and individual common sense, he said he’s optimistic that can be avoided.
The issue over whether to wear masks has been brewing since federal recommendations changed in April.
Early on, mask wearing was discouraged to help protect what little supply of personal protection equipment was on hand for medical staff and first responders, with even local health-care systems rationing face masks.
But as the pandemic spread and more research was conducted, health officials said masks could help protect individuals from saliva droplets, a key factor in how COVID-19 spreads.
In a May 5 Situation Report from the Department of Health, it noted that “Modeling suggests that use of face masks in public (even low-efficacy cloth masks) can significantly reduce COVID-19 cases. ...”
Researchers from a team of universities and Harvard Medical School in April released a study saying the use of face masks (such as surgical masks) could lead to the elimination of the pandemic if at least 80 percent of U.S. residents use them consistently while in public.
Costco Wholesale, in May, was one of the first retailers to require customers to wear masks.
Costco CEO Craig Jelinek was at Tuesday’s news conference and elaborated on the retailer’s process. “At the beginning, I can honestly say we didn’t know what we were doing. A lot of individuals got sick.”
Initially Costco was going to use its N95 masks for its workers, he said, but the retailer wound up donating masks to hospitals instead, given the early supply shortage. It then sourced masks for its workforce.
“We’ve had some spikes, but not from the work environment,” he said. “We’ve shown it’s improved. I’m not a scientist, but I can only go by what’s happened in our organization.
“There’s a learning curve to this, and you learn as you go.”
UFCW 21 President Faye Guenther, head of the state’s largest private-sector union, also joined the governor at Tuesday’s new conference. The union represents grocery and health care workers, among others, and has been instrumental in the collection of personal protective equipment in Pierce County.
“We know that face masks are a powerful tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and they work best if we are wearing them all together,” Guenther said. “... The science is telling us that masks are the tool.”
Dr. John Lynch, an infectious disease doctor at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, supported the science behind face coverings, saying they can save lives.
“There are increasing numbers of studies that show that wearing a mask protects those around us as well as protects us,” he said on the press call.
The more people who wear them, he said, the more comfortable others will feel wearing them too.
This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 3:11 PM with the headline "Gov. Inslee announces people must wear masks when in public."
