HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaii is the last state to maintain a mask mandate, but that will be going away in a couple of weeks. Residents should still hang on to their masks as Governor David Ige said the pandemic remains a fluid situation.
Governor David Ige said the statewide mask mandate that has been in place since April 2020 will come to an end on March 25 at 11:59 p.m.
Ige said the decision comes as COVID cases continue to drop along with hospitalizations, despite counties loosening COVID restrictions.
Ige said, “I do think that we have seen the continuing drop in a reduction in the number of cases and that we’re seeing the new cases. The seven-day average here statewide has dropped to 140 or so, and just a week ago or so, it was above 300.”
The Department of Health Director Dr. Elizabeth Char said public health guidance will soon be issued. The guidance will cover when it would be a good idea to wear a mask even if the law no longer requires it.
Dr. Char said, “Masks are still an important tool in preventing the transmission of COVID and other respiratory viruses.”
The governor left the door open to possibly reinstating face-covering requirements if COVID cases start to increase once again.
Ige said, “This is all promising, but we’ve seen previous progress wiped out by delta or an omicron variant. So I want to be very clear. I will be ready to reinstitute the mask policy if COVID cases should surge.”
The Department of Health and the governor said they will monitor several metrics such as community spread of the virus and impacts on hospitals.
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Char said, “If we see a big spike in cases and we see the hospitals filling up again. If we see just in the community that there’s something going on, very very significant outbreaks, those are all trends that we watch.”
