Oregon Health Authority will lift indoor mask requirements by March 31
Published 2:56 pm Monday, February 7, 2022
- A Stanfield senior poses in his Oregon State University Beavers mask and dollar bill lei before commencement ceremonies on May 29, 2021.
The Oregon Health Authority announced Monday that it will lift the state’s indoor mask mandate by March 31.
State health leaders expect that by late March, Oregon’s COVID-19 hospitalizations will taper off to about 400 or fewer. That’s the level the state recorded before the omicron variant began to spread.
“The evidence from Oregon and around the country is clear: masks save lives by slowing the spread of COVID-19,” said Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the state’s epidemiologist. “We should see COVID-19 hospitalizations drop by the end of March because so many Oregonians are wearing masks and taking other steps to protect themselves and each other, such as getting a booster shot or vaccinating their children. At that point, it will be safer to lift mask requirements.”
Indoor mask requirements will remain in place until further notice for now, as COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to strain the state’s hospital system.
A new rule was filed Monday by the OHA with the Oregon Secretary of State to keep the state’s indoor mask requirement in place, replacing a temporary rule that was set to expire Feb. 8. The new rule allowed health officials to extend the current restrictions past their temporary expiration date until no longer needed, OHA said.
Oregon’s average number of newly diagnosed cases has dropped about 40% over the past week, according to the OHA. Despite that, hospitalizations have remained above 1,000 per day.
OHA said Oregon has the “third lowest cumulative COVID-19 case rate in the nation and the seventh lowest COVID-19 death rate” since the start of the pandemic. In a filing with the secretary of state Monday, Oregon health officials said scientific research has shown that masks protect people from COVID-19, and the state’s overall compliance with mask rules, combined with a high vaccination rate, has blunted the omicron surge and prevented a meltdown of Oregon’s hospital system, at least for now. According to Oregon Health & Science University data, more than eight in 10 Oregonians report continuing to wear masks in public.
That has helped Oregon prevent topping the 1,178 hospitalizations recorded during the peak of the delta variant surge, despite initial hospitalization projections the state received.
