Were people actually wearing masks outside when alone and doing stuff? A few cranks, of course. We were required to wear them around customers. I think government just likes laying down rules how we live our lives
You can ditch your face mask while outside starting Friday afternoon in North Carolina
Part of North Carolina’s mask mandate will come to an end Friday afternoon.
Starting at 5 p.m., masks will not be required outdoors in the Tar Heel state. This will be the first time in nearly a year that masks will not be required in some public spaces.
Gov. Roy Cooper said he was relaxing the restrictions because of the continued improvement to COVID-19 metrics and the increase in the number of adults in the state who have gotten vaccinated.
However, masks will still be required indoors.
Cooper said the indoor mask mandate would remain in place for a while longer. Before he removes that restriction, Cooper said he would like to see two-thirds of vaccine eligible North Carolinians get inoculated against the virus.
Although the outdoor mask mandate expires Friday, remember that the executive order is a minimum requirement. So individual businesses could still opt to be more strict about where customers are required to wear masks.
And that’s where it breaks down: what will companies require? Regardless, this changes mostly nothing for most of us who wouldn’t wear a mask outside anyhow. A bigger part is that Cooper is requiring 2/3rds of adults to have had at least one vaccine (thanks, President Trump for the vaccines!) before doing away with the indoors mask mandate. Right now it’s about 49%, and fewer and fewer are getting it. So, this is a way of keeping the government restrictions going, despite things going pretty good in maskless states like Florida, South Dakota, and Texas.
L.A. County relaxes outdoor mask rules for vaccinated people
The L.A. County Department of Public Health has revised a pandemic health order to align itself with new federal guidance that eased rules on when fully vaccinated people should wear masks.
The updated health order, which goes into effect Friday, states that unless they are in crowded settings, fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask when outdoors alone, with members of their household or with a small group of fully vaccinated people. They also can go without a mask when intermingling with a small group of people who are not fully vaccinated but not at high risk for experiencing serious illness or death from the coronavirus.
The order states that fully vaccinated people must still wear a mask in crowded outdoor settings, such as concerts or sporting events, in spaces where physical distancing isn’t possible and it’s unknown if everyone is fully vaccinated, in indoor public settings and at worksites or businesses.
So, requiring it at worksites and business doing business outside. These government folks really, really like controlling the lives of citizens. And really want to keep this stuff going.
Read: North Carolina, LA County To Enter Somewhat Relaxed Mask Rules Friday »