Coronavirus Watch: The last state to drop mask mandates
After nearly two years of enforcing some of the most stringent COVID-19 guidelines in the country, Hawaii's governor announced the state will drop its mask mandate on March 26, becoming the final state to do so.
At the height of the pandemic, most states had some form of mandate. All but 11 instituted mask mandates at some time, according to AARP.
But as the national wave of COVID cases and hospitalizations from the omicron variant began receding in February, a flurry of states acted quickly to drop their indoor mask mandates. Gov. David Ige said this week that the state had reduced COVID-19 to the point where most Hawaiians would be safe without masks indoors.
Read more from Reporter Celina Tebor here.
It's Wednesday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news to know:
- Austria is reversing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate four months after the law was passed, undoing its status as the first European country to announce a vaccine mandate.
- Former prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to a statement from a party spokesman.
- A Georgia man who used proceeds from a COVID-19 small business loan to purchase a $57,000 Pokémon card has been sentenced to three years in federal prison, according to prosecutors.
See our COVID-19 resource guide here. See total reported cases and deaths here. On vaccinations: About 76% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 65% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
– Cady Stanton, Paste BN digital editor fellow, @cady_stanton