Since late January, seven states have dropped implementing business mask mandates as COVID-19 case numbers declined.
The seven states included California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, New York, and Rhode Islands. Among them, only Nevada mandates the wearing of masks in schools, per NBD News’ review of state mask requirements.
Only a small number of mask restrictions remain. Back on Jan. 28, 12 states all required the wearing of masks in some or all settings. However, only five states – along with Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., still have such restrictions in place. Of the said states, a few have revealed that they’re planning to lift them by the end of the month or by the beginning of March.
The end to the implementation of such restrictions, however, comes with several caveats. These include the following:
- New York will still require masks to be worn in several places such as public transportation, homeless shelters, nursing homes, and correctional facilities.
- Washington state says it will lift its mask mandate on Feb. 18. However, it still requires indoor masking. Also, for a lot of places, school restrictions will still be implemented, at least in the next few weeks.
- Meanwhile, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) said on Thursday that it will lift mask requirements in businesses, schools, and medical settings.
Even before all this, however, some have noticed that people are already breaking protocol when it comes to mask mandates.
Larry Elder, a former gubernatorial candidate and radio host, appeared on America’s Newsroom and spoke with Bill Hemmer about how hypocritical and absurd California’s mask mandates and COVID-19 restrictions were.
“If you go to a restaurant here in L.A. County you are supposed to show proof you’ve been vaccinated,” Elder said on the show. “Walk in with a mask. Sit at a table, remove the mask. All servers are wearing masks. As you saw at the Super Bowl, 78,000 people not wearing masks, although remember the L.A. mayor wasn’t wearing a mask the other day at the NFC championship game. He was holding his breath. 78,000 people were holding their breath the entire game.”
“The whole thing is a joke,” he went on to say, adding: “They were handing out N-95 masks for everybody entering the stadium. The only concession stand that didn’t make money was the facemask stands. Kids are going to school now and have to wear masks. Come July, a mandate that all kids have to be vaccinated and wear masks while the governor now is trying to ease the mandates, but he is caught between a rock and a hard place… I don’t know what the rules are.”
Just last weekend, almost all celebrities and left-wing lawmakers were at Super Bowl LVI at the SoFi Stadium, spotted maskless even if the venue requires any event with over 5,000 people to wear masks both indoors and outdoors. Meanwhile, elementary school kids are still required to wear masks in the same state.
Larry Elder on California mask mandate: The whole thing is a joke—Celebrities ditch masks at Super Bowl but kids in local schools must keep them onhttps://t.co/lZZAj5jfIa#WeveGotAStateToSave
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) February 15, 2022
The cases of COVID-19 across a lot of states have continued to go down. The nationwide case average went down to around 157,000 as of Monday, which is a figure near the delta surge’s peak last September, which was at 167,000. The U.S. has averaged over 2,000 deaths per day for nearly four weeks. Let us know below what you think about the lift of the mask mandate. Was it all a hoax?
