As US cases drop, Hawaii is lone remaining state with indoor mask mandate: Latest COVID-19 updates

Celina Tebor and John Bacon

Forty-nine states have announced plans to drop their indoor mask mandates as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations steadily decline across the country. The only holdout remains Hawaii.

The island state has taken strong precautions against coronavirus from the beginning of the pandemic, and is still requiring out-of-state American travelers to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to avoid a mandatory quarantine.

Over 75% of Hawaiians have received two doses of a COVID vaccine – 10% higher than the national rate – according to the Hawaii Department of Health, and coronavirus cases have dropped by a whopping 64% between Feb. 5 and Feb. 18.

Hawaii's rapid drop in COVID cases mirrors nationwide statistics: Reported U.S. cases on Saturday barely exceeded 100,000, a sharp downturn from around 800,850 five weeks ago, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Gov. David Ige told ABC 4, a local TV station, on Thursday that he's working with the state's health department to "determine when the time is right" for Hawaii to lift its indoor mask mandate.

"Hawaii ranks second (to last) in the nation when it comes to COVID deaths, in part because of the indoor mask requirement and other measures that have proven successful in protecting our community from this potentially deadly virus," Ige said in a statement to the news station. "We base our decisions on science, with the health and safety of our community as the top priority."

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