No Masks Required For Public School Students Outdoors Starting Wednesday
Conflicting guidance from the Department of Health had caused confusion on the outdoor school mask mandate.
Hawaii public school students and staff will no longer need to wear masks outdoors starting Wednesday, the state Department of Education announced.
This change comes as Hawaii sees its infection numbers plummet to pre-omicron levels and states across the U.S. move to end both indoor and outdoor masking in their schools.
The DOE鈥檚 decision was informed by guidance from the state Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, interim superintendent Keith Hayashi said in a Tuesday press release.
鈥淚t鈥檚 encouraging to see our indicators trending in the right direction to allow us to make this change,鈥 Hayashi said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing COVID case counts at our public schools continue to decline for the seventh-straight week and weekly rates are down 98 percent from January鈥檚 omicron surge peak.鈥
The DOE has required indoor and outdoor masking on campus as an 鈥渁dded protection鈥 , despite Ige lifting a similar statewide outdoor mask mandate in May.
However, conflicting recommendations from the DOH, which advise that masking be optional outdoors on campus, have sparked confusion in recent months, with at Mokapu Elementary School in Kailua asserting that outdoor masking rules were the principal鈥檚 decision.
Masking is still mandated indoors for students and staff, the DOE emphasized. Gov. David Ige is scheduled to give an update on the state鈥檚 indoor mask mandate Tuesday.
