Washington Department of Health Looking Past This Week’s Mask Mandate Lift

With the statewide mask mandates for general indoor settings and education set to lift after this Friday, many are wondering what a post-mask mandate Washington State will look like going forward.

Secretary of Health Umair Shah is asking the public to please respect the 'rules of the room', meaning if a jurisdiction or business is asking for masks to be worn please be civil and respectful.

"Be kind to those around you, especially those who may be living with someone who has a medical condition, maybe is immunocompromised, or just feels safer (keeping) a mask on,"

Shah advises the pandemic is not over and people should keep their masks in case they need them again later on.

The Washington State Department of Health is keeping on eye on new variants as well.

Shah says the Omicron variant may have been beneficial to the population as a whole because of the immunity it's thought to provide. That beneficial immunity might even extend to an Omicron sub-variant known as BA-2.

"We continue to be vigilant about following the genotyping of what comes in positive in the State of Washington." continued Shah, "We are seeing some increase in BA-2 in the State of Washington, which is not surprising because that's happening across the country as well."

The World Health Organization says the BA-2 Omicron variant is likely 30% more transmissible but no more severe. Currently BA-2 accounts for 1 in 5 cases worldwide.