Gov. David Ige on Friday defended his decision to continue the statewide mask mandate despite recent recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During a livestreamed interview Friday, Ige said he expects COVID-19 cases to rise now that all four counties have dropped their restrictions.
“We want to see what the impact of the counties dropping their restrictions would be on the case counts that we’re seeing, and then we’ll be looking at the general prevalence of the virus in our community before we’ll be making that decision (to drop the mask mandate).”
Ige noted that all counties in Hawaii are still at a “medium” level of COVID-19 activity, according to updated metrics by the CDC. On Friday, 234 cases were reported in the state, 30 of which were on the Big Island.
Meanwhile, there were 257 cases reported at Department of Education schools over the past week, which Ige said can serve as a bellwether for the general health of communities as a whole.
While the CDC in February updated its COVID guidance to recommend indoor public mask usage only in communities determined to have high case counts, Ige said that guidance does not apply to all places — schools or prisons, for example, are not included.
Ige acknowledged that he could enforce mask mandates only in those places exempt from the CDC’s recommendations and drop them everywhere else, but said that enforcing a blanket mandate is easier than a piecemeal mandate that applies in some places and not others.
Although there is no current estimate for when the mask mandate will be lifted, the Safe Travels Hawaii program and requirements for state and county employees to be vaccinated or regularly tested will end after March 25.
However, Ige said that going forward, all new state hires will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but current employees will be exempt.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.