Maine Gov. Janet Mills has signed an executive order ending the state’s mask mandate effective next week, ahead of the Memorial Day weekend that marks the unofficial start of the summer tourism season.
The governor originally said her order would allow fully vaccinated Mainers to forgo masks indoors. But the administration decided it would be impossible to differentiate who has been vaccinated.
The executive order signed Wednesday lifts mask requirements for everyone in the state except children 5 and older in school.
The announcement was not unexpected. The state has been reviewing the state’s vaccination rates and changing guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It expands on the elimination of restrictions on the numbers of people indoors that were already set to begin Monday. The governor previously lifted mask requirements while outdoors.
Businesses are free to continue to impose mask mandates and social distancing rules if they choose to do so, but they’re no longer mandated by the state, officials said.
In other pandemic news:
CLINICS
One of the state’s largest mass vaccination clinics is closing. And smaller clinics are ramping up.
About 87,000 Mainers have been vaccinated at the MaineHeath-operated vaccination center at Scarborough Downs, which was shutting down Thursday. Another large vaccination site in Bangor closes next week.
With half of Maine’s population vaccinated, the strategy is shifting to smaller clinics closer to home to vaccinate as much of the remaining population as possible. That includes middle and high schools.
Any organization that believes it can vaccinate 10 or more people can contact the state and obtain help in setting up a vaccine clinic, said Maine Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew.
THE NUMBERS
The trend number of new infections in Maine continues to slowly decrease.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Maine has gone from 310 new cases per day on May 4 to 224 new cases per day on May 18.
On Thursday, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported another 219 infections and nine deaths.
The Maine CDC noted that only one of those deaths had occurred over the past 24 hours. Eight of the nine deaths were the result of a review of death certificates, officials said.
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