Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s press secretary has reaffirmed that the statewide mask mandate put in place to combat the spread of COVID-19 will end next month on April 9.
“As Governor Ivey has previously stated, Alabama’s mask mandate ends April 9,” said Gina Maiola in a statement to Breitbart News. “We have made progress, and we are moving towards personal responsibility and common sense, not endless government mandates.”
Earlier this month, Ivey implemented a “new modified order” and said she would not allow the mask mandate to extend past April 9.
Ivey had previously extended the state’s “safer at home” order, which included a mask mandate, in January. That extension could have ended earlier this month, but Ivey felt it should carry on through Easter.
“Let me be abundantly clear: after April 9, I will not keep the mask order in effect,” Ivey said at the time.
The governor also stated then that she and state health officer Dr. Scott Harris were “both convinced that we need to get past Easter and hopefully allow more Alabamians to get their first shot before we take a first step that some states have taken to remove the mask order altogether and other restrictions.”
Ivey announced the statewide mask mandate last summer, an order she said was “hard to enforce” as she called for “everyone in our state to practice personal responsibility & wear a mask.”
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