Masks Should Be Worn After Mandate Expires: AL Health Director

MONTGOMERY, AL — Gov. Kay Ivey's statewide mask mandate expires April 9, but state health director Dr. Scott Harris says people need to keep wearing the masks beyond the expiration of the order.

Ivey said Wednesday before extending the order another month that she felt wearing masks was the responsible action to take, but that she would trust Alabama citizens to "practice personal responsibility."

"I think people ought to be careful," Ivey said. "They ought to stay home as they can. They ought to wear masks if they go out. They ought to stay out of crowds. We hope that people won’t see the end of the mask mandate as just carte blanche to behave any way that they want."

"There is nothing magical about the date of April 9," Harris said Friday. "We don’t want the public to think that’s the day we all stop taking precautions."

Health officials in Alabama agree with Harris, including Dr. Sarah Nafziger, vice president of clinic support services at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

"We are not out of the woods yet," Nafziger said in a news conference Friday. "We have a lot of vulnerable people in our population and the last thing we want to do is for them to be sick and for them to die."

SEE ALSO:

• AL Coronavirus Vaccine Hub: Where, Who And How To Get Immunized
• What Ivey's New Safety Order Means For Schools, Businesses
• How Well Is Alabama Protecting Children During COVID-19?