No Masks Needed For Fully Vaccinated in Yakima County
If you are fully vaccinated you don't need to wear a mask in Yakima County in most settings. That's the latest news from officials at the Yakima Health District. Yakima Interim Health Officer Dr. Larry Jecha has lifted or rescinded the local masking order in order to "ensure consistency between local and state guidance."
On May 13 Governor Jay Inslee announced the state of Washington would adopt the masking guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On that same day a press release from the district says the Yakima Health District announced it would continue to follow state and federal guidance. But local health officials say there's still a lot of confusion about mask wearing in Yakima County. As a way to be more consistent Interim Health Officer Dr. Larry Jecha lifted the local masking order. Yakima County will now follow state guidance which says people who are fully vaccinated do not need to wear masks or social distance in most settings. exceptions include, healthcare settings, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, schools and public transportation.
For those not fully vaccinated the masking rules and social distancing rules still apply.
If you are looking for a vaccine check yakimavaccines.org for a list of locations where you can get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Yakima Health District spokesperson Lilian Bravo says vaccination rates are increasing. She says 50.88% of people ages 16+ have had their first dose of the vaccine while 42.34% of those 16+ that are fully vaccinated. Bravo says "We are in a good spot but hope we can continue to see these COVID-19 rates go down and vaccination rates go up. In general, communities require the majority of their population to be vaccinated (70%+) to ensure adequate immunity against a virus. Again, while we are doing much better, we know we can work together to continue to lower these rates and overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. We are very close as a state (58.83% initiated vaccination 46.78% fully vaccinated) and we can work towards doing our part in Yakima as well."
Read More: Yakima COVID Numbers Improving Daily | https://newstalkkit.com/yakima-covid-numbers-improving-daily/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral