MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Breaking with other Southern GOP governors, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey extended her state's mask order for another month Thursday but said the requirement will end for good in April.
Ivey has faced political pressure to lift the mask order like her Republican counterparts but said she will follow the recommendations of medical officials and keep the mandate that was set to expire today in place until April 9.
"We need to get past Easter and hopefully allow more Alabamians to get their first shot before we take a step some other states have taken to remove the mask order altogether and lift other restrictions. Folks, we are not there yet, but goodness knows we're getting closer," Ivey said at a news conference.
The governor called masks "one of our greatest tools" in preventing the virus's spread but emphasized that she will not extend the order further, saying it will become a matter of personal responsibility.
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"Even when we lift the mask order, I will continue to wear my mask while I'm around others and strongly urge my fellow citizens to use common sense and do the same," Ivey said.
Medical officials welcomed Ivey's decision, arguing that easing restrictions before more people were vaccinated could reverse recent gains.
"This is very good news. This gives us a month to vaccinate more people and to get a better handle on the role of the U.K. variant," said Dr. Don Williamson, the former state health officer who now heads the Alabama Hospital Association.
Ivey faced backlash on social media, with some users sharing the phone number to the governor's office and asking callers to voice opposition.
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The Alabama Senate had approved a resolution Wednesday urging Ivey to end the mandate. Republican Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth also asked Ivey to end the requirement, which he has opposed all along, saying individuals can make decisions for themselves and follow safety rules until vaccinations and immunity levels are sufficient.
"But we can do all of these things without a Big Brother-style government mandate looming over us," Ainsworth said.
ADVICE OF EXPERTS
Governors across the United States are taking widely diverging approaches to mask mandates, as federal officials, including President Joe Biden, warn that despite a drop in coronavirus cases, it is too soon to stop wearing masks.
In response to decisions this week to lift statewide mask mandates by Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, Biden said Wednesday that those moves were a "big mistake."
"The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything's fine, take off your mask and forget it," Biden told reporters at the White House. "It's critical, critical, critical, critical that they follow the science."
A Republican, Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia, said it was a bad idea to ignore the advice of the experts.
"I don't know really what the big rush to get rid of the mask is, because these masks have saved a lot, a lot of lives," Justice said Thursday on CNN, adding that he, too, looks forward to the day when he doesn't have to wear one.
However, "If we don't watch out, we can make some mistakes," Justice said.
On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert and an adviser to Biden, called the loosening of restrictions "unfortunate" at a time of high level community spread.
Speaking on CNN, he urged people to abide by public health measures and to get vaccinated: "That's what we need to do right now. We will be able to open up the country, open up the economy, but right now we want to get that level of virus much, much lower than it currently is."
Fauci said the possibility of variants spreading more widely across the United States "might become likely," especially if public health measures were not enforced. "That's one of the reasons why I keep saying now is not the time to pull back," he said.
CALIFORNIA
California will begin sending 40% of all its vaccine doses to the most vulnerable neighborhoods in the state to try to inoculate people most at risk and get the state's economy open more quickly, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday in the latest shake-up to the state's rules.
The doses will be spread among 400 ZIP codes where there are about 8 million people eligible for shots, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state's health and human services secretary. Many of the neighborhoods are in Los Angeles County and the Central Valley, which have had among the highest rates of infection.
The areas are considered most vulnerable based on metrics such as household income, education level and access to health care. Newsom said that not only is this the right thing to do, but also it's critical to opening up more of the state's economy.
"It is a race against the variants. It's a race against exhaustion. It's a race to safely, thoughtfully open our economy, mindful that it has to be an economy that doesn't leave people behind, that is truly inclusive," Newsom, a Democrat, said at a news conference.
FLORIDA
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and state health officials came under deeper scrutiny amid revelations that seniors in a wealthy enclave in Key Largo received hundreds of vaccinations as early as mid-January, giving ammunition to critics who say the Republican governor is favoring wealthy constituents over ordinary Floridians.
DeSantis pushed back Thursday, saying a local hospital -- not the state -- was behind the vaccinations of more than 1,200 residents of the exclusive Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, and that the state "wasn't involved in it in any shape or form."
The charges of favoritism were amplified by money pouring into the governor's campaign coffers from wealthy benefactors with ties to communities awarded vaccination sites -- like the one in Key Largo. One resident of Ocean Reef, Republican former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, last week gave the Florida governor's campaign committee $250,000.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried joined Democratic U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist in calling for federal officials to probe the DeSantis administration's vaccine distribution programs.
"If this isn't public corruption, I don't know what is," Fried said Thursday at a news conference in the Florida Capitol, calling on the FBI to launch an investigation.
Information for this article was contributed by Kim Chandler, Janie Har, Kathleen Ronayne, Amy Taxin, Bobby Caina Calvan, Adriana Gomez Licon and Anila Yoganathan of The Associated Press; and by Eileen Sullivan and Michael D. Shear of The New York Times.
