California, Oregon, and Washington to officially end school mask mandates

According to announcements made jointly by the Democratic governors of California, Oregon, and Washington on Monday, schoolchildren in their states will no longer need to wear masks in schools as part of new indoor mask guidelines for the states.

“With declining case rates and hospitalizations across the West, California, Oregon, and Washington are moving together to update their masking guidance,” the governors wrote in their statement.

Between the three states, which have collectively had some of the strictest coronavirus measures throughout the pandemic, there are more than 7.5 million school-age children.

The newly implemented guidance made masks only strongly recommended instead of required at most indoor places in California starting on Tuesday.

California schools will ditch their school masking requirement on March 12, regardless of vaccination status, and in Washington and Oregon, all the restrictions will be removed on the same date.

In all three of the states, the decision to follow the state guidance will be left up to individual school districts, which is similar to the way many other states are conducting school-masking guidance.

The milestone has been two years in the making, and it comes as many parts of the country are relaxing their public health orders, even including school mask mandates, as leaders look to restore normalcy once again as well as boost economic recovery.

The changes reflect the growing opinion that the virus is not simply going to disappear, and Americans will need to learn to cope with the virus for the foreseeable future.

New Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines released on Friday eased the federal masking guidance, saying the majority of Americans do not need to wear masks in lots of indoor public settings.