Guidance for Face Coverings

Updated 06/14/2021

On May 18, 2021 Oregon Health Authority (OHA) announced new guidance for face coverings. Below is a summary of that guidance. Community members and businesses should review OHA's full mask, face coverings, and face shields guidance before making changes to their activities.

Please Note: It is still safest for everyone, including those who are fully vaccinated, to wear face coverings when inside a private residence with individuals outside of your household if not all individuals are fully vaccinated.

On This Page:

Oregon's New Mask Guidance Graphic

 

Exceptions to Guidance

 

Businesses and community members should note that the new guidance DOES NOT apply to the following settings:

  • Child care
  • K-12 schools (This guidance DOES apply to K-12 sports) (K-12 schools must comply with the Ready Schools, Safe Learners (RSSL) guidance face covering requirements).
  • Areas within workplaces where employees live together for periods of time, such as fire stations
  • Licensed health care facilities
  • Health care offices
  • Shelters and transitional housing
  • Adult jails and correctional facilities
  • Youth detention and correctional facilities
  • Private residences
  • Any other sector that has more specific guidance issued by the Oregon Health Authority or another state agency that contains requirements and recommendations on masks, face coverings and face shields.

 

Indoor Guidance: Fully Vaccinated Individuals

 

Under most circumstances, individuals who are fully vaccinated with proof of vaccination status are NOT REQUIRED to wear a mask, face covering or face shield, or maintain physical distancing. Fully vaccinated individuals should review the OHA's full Guidance for Fully Vaccinated Individuals before changing their activities. 

Fully vaccinated individuals should still wear face coverings in the following settings:

  • Any setting where the owner or operator continues to require masks, face coverings or face shields in accordance with the Statewide Mask, Face Coverings, Face Shields Guidance.
  • Health care settings.
  • Adult jails and correctional facilities.
  • Youth detention and correctional facilities.
  • Shelters and transitional housing.
  • K-12 schools. (Fully vaccinated individuals must comply with Ready School, Safe Learners (RSSL) guidance face covering requirements).
  • Planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation traveling into, within, or out of the United States.
  • U.S. transportation hubs such as airports and bus stations.

 

Indoor Guidance: Entering Businesses

 

  • A business, employer or faith institution may choose whether or not to check for vaccine status.
  • If they check for vaccine status, you may go without a mask, face covering or face shield, and you do not need to maintain physical distancing requirements. 
    • Your vaccine record can be paper, a copy, or a photograph on a device. The record must include name, date of birth, brand of vaccine, date(s) received, and location(s) where received. 
  • If they do not check for vaccine status, you must wear a mask, face covering or face shield, and maintain physical distancing requirements.
  • Businesses may exclude from their business, event, or facility anyone who fails to comply with those requirements.
  • Individuals who have a medical condition that makes it hard to breathe or a disability that prevents the individual from wearing a face covering can request an accommodation from a business, person responsible for an indoor or outdoor space open to the public, public or private workplace, private career school or public or private university to enable full and equal access to services, transportation and facilities open to the public.

 

Outdoor Guidance: All Individuals

 

Masks are no longer required in outdoor settings open to the public.

“Outdoor spaces open to the public” means outdoor spaces, whether publicly owned or privately owned, where the public has access by right or invitation, express or implied, whether by payment of money or not, and include but are not limited to shared or common spaces, outdoor sports fields, parks, rooftop terraces, sidewalks or spaces where people may gather for social, civic, cultural or religious purposes.

Oregon Health Authority strongly recommends that individuals who are unvaccinated or who are at risk for severe COVID-19 disease continue to maintain physical distancing and wear face coverings when in outdoor crowded areas and in outdoor large gatherings of individuals and maintain physical distancing.

 

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