3:19 PM: Gov. Inslee is speaking right now (watch it live) and just announced that masks will be mandatory statewide as of Friday. Even though the worst outbreak right now is in Eastern Washington, infection rates are concerning on this side of the Cascades too, he says. They’ll be required in most indoor (public) circumstances as well as many outdoor circumstances in which social distancing isn’t always possible. “Until a vaccine is developed, this is going to be our best defense,” he says. There will be exceptions, he adds – children younger than 5, people with hearing challenges, people with certain health problems.
3:32 PM: Secretary of Health John Wiesman says he’s issuing the official order and that it’s how “life will be different” for a while. He’s followed by a doctor who declares, “Masks can save lives.” They protect the wearer and those around them. “We know that this appears to work for lots of respiratory-tract infections.”
3:44 PM: Asked about enforcement, Gov. Inslee says that’s not the point – he expects there will be lots of voluntary compliance because people want to stay healthy and care for their neighbors. He says Yakima – which is dealing with a major outbreak – is already up to about 60 percent mask use. — Violating the rule would be a misdemeanor, Inslee says in response to another question, but it’s “not our desire to see hara-working officers (become the mask police) – they have other things to do.”
4:09 PM: This is about to wrap up; the governor and secretary were joined by Craig Jelinek, president and CEO of Costco, and Faye Guenther, president of UFCW 21. Inslee stressed that this isn’t about your personal choice if you want to risk getting sick or not – it’s about protecting others, such as essential workers (like store clerks) who don’t have a choice – they have to be at work “to feed their families.”
5:47 PM: Here’s the governor’s full announcement.
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