MONTGOMERY – Alabama Governor Kay Ivey on Thursday extended the state’s face covering requirement through the month of September, and it is now set to expire at 5:00 p.m. CT on Friday, October 2.
All other coronavirus related precautions such as a limits on capacity for restaurants and retailers have been kept in place for the same amount of time.
Ivey appeared alongside State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris in Montgomery to make the announcement.
No additional precautions have been added to the State Health Order besides the extension of the mask requirements.
The mask order was first implemented on July 15. For the seven days before July 15 Alabama averaged 1,652 new coronavirus cases per day according to Bama Tracker.
For the week ending August 27, Alabama averaged 758 new cases per day, a 55% decrease.
The amended State Health Order can be read here.
UPDATE 12:15 p.m.
“Folks, I understand you don’t want to wear the mask,” Ivey said after announcing the extension.
“But we are seeing significant drops in our hospitalizations and daily positive COVID-19 numbers,” she added.
“I have no doubt that this is the result of our mask ordinance,” the governor advised.
Dr. Harris updated the public that Alabama has now experienced around 120,000 coronavirus cases, 14,000 hospitalizations and 2,000 deaths.
After giving these statistics Harris allowed that he was “cautiously optimistic about what we have been seeing recently” with respect to the state’s declining COVID-19 numbers.
“We believe the mask mandate is the reason [for Alabama’s improving COVID-19 metrics],” Harris said on Thursday.
Harris said that he and his department “have some trepidation” about the upcoming Labor Day holiday and hopes Alabamians will behave responsible when it comes to coronavirus precautions.
He cited the surges in case numbers after Memorial Day and Independence Day as the reasons for his concern.
Ivey was asked about any criticism she had received on implementing the mask order.
“I really haven’t gotten a whole lot of pushback,” the governor responded.
“We’re making such good progress doing what we’ve been doing, we need to keep it up,” she remarked.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: henry@new-yhn.local or on Twitter @HenryThornton95
