STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

GRAPH BY PAUL RIES

Hailey Mayor Martha Burke has rescinded the city’s indoor mask mandate effective immediately.

Burke signed Hailey Public Health Advisory Order 2021-04 on Friday, rescinding the indoor face-covering requirement. She also called a special meeting of the Hailey City Council for 4:30 p.m. Monday, May 17, to consider the order.

Idaho law gives a mayor the authority to enact an order which the city council must consider within seven days of the order being signed.

Burke based her action on the Center for Disease Control’s new guidance stating that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in any setting, save for a few exceptions, such as riding planes and visiting a hospital, because of the decreased risk of community spread of COVID-19.

“It is important that government officials respond to guidance based on data in order to hold the public’s trust,” Burke said.

Additionally, the latest seven-day health data posted by Blaine County on May 13 places Blaine County on the low end of the Moderate Risk Level with a seven-day moving average incidence rate of 3.7 per 100,000 residents and a .37 percent positive rate, denoting a decline in the incidence of COVID-19 presence in the community.

More than 76 percent of county residents over the age of 18 have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Unvaccinated people should still wear facemasks indoors because they pose a risk to themselves and others, the CDC said.