Mike Maltais, Staff writer
OLYMPIA – Effective Friday, June 26, Washington state residents and visitors are required to wear face coverings in most indoor and outdoor public settings to guard against the spread of the coronavirus per an order signed by state Secretary of Health John Wiesman.
The order applies to those:
• Inside of or in line to enter any indoor public space.
• Seeking health care services.
• Waiting for or riding public transportation.
• Outdoors and unable to remain six feet distant from others not in their household.
Exceptions to the above order include children under five years of age and people with medical or mental health conditions or disabilities that prevent the wearing a face covering.
Earlier in June state officials launched a program to make reusable cloth face coverings available for all low-income Washington residents. The state Emergency Management Division partnered with the Department of Enterprise Services to purchase 3.6 million cloth masks. The goal is to distribute two masks to every Washingtonian with an income below 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($52,400 for a family of four)
“In just two weeks, the state distributed nearly 2.8 million masks and is working on filling the remaining orders from local emergency management offices,” a state Department of Health media release said.
The state delivers the masks to local emergency management offices which in turn allocates them to community and service organizations for distribution to individuals.
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