JILL Biden kept her mask on at a museum reopening in Washington DC on Friday, as confusion erupted a day after the CDC said vaccinated people no longer needed them indoors.
The First Lady was spotted without a mask yesterday after the White House said they were no longer needed on the grounds if fully vaccinated against Covid.
Yet with the CDC stating that Americans must still wear a mask if mandated by a local business or workplace, she was forced to put back on her face covering while visiting the Smithsonian.
It is unclear if the museum plans to reevaluate its mask policy in light of yesterday’s announcement.
The First Lady wore a flower-patterned dark blue mask matching her dress as she went on a brief tour of the Harriet Tubman exhibit as the museum reopens to the public.
She was joined by Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie Bunch and National Museum of African American History and Culture Director Kevin Young who also wore masks.
Immediately after the CDC announcement on Thursday, Jill Biden had celebrated by ditching the mask as she met with actress Jennifer Garner during a visit to a vaccination site in West Virginia.
“We feel naked,” she said before adding: “I didn’t mean it that way!”
President Joe Biden also appeared maskless as he welcomed the agency’s announcement.
Yet confused reigned within hours as businesses and local authorities chose not to comply with the eased regulations.
Several states have indicated that they will not be instantly easing mask mandates despite the new federal guidelines.
Gov. Gavin Newsom had said that California would only lift its outdoor policy on masks on June 15 when the state plans to fully reopen.
The governors of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia – all Democrats – have also all said that they will take the new guidance under advisement before implementing it.
New Jersey’s Governor said Friday his state will not drop its indoor mask mandate for fully vaccinated people.
Phil Murphy said that the fully vaccinated “can do away with our masks” while outdoors but held off on removing the rule for indoor activities.
“We will get there, as it relates to indoor masking, it’s only a matter of time — if you’re in a business and a public setting, we’re not there yet,” Murphy said.
“We’re frankly not there yet.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has also said that the state isn’t ready to go maskless.
“In New York, we have always relied on the facts and the science to guide us throughout the worst of this pandemic and in our successful reopening,” he said on Thursday afternoon.
“We have received the newly revised guidance from the CDC regarding mask wearing and social distancing for those with vaccinations and are reviewing them in consultation with Dr. Zucker and our partners and health experts in surrounding states.”
Trader Joe’s became one of the first major store chains to announce that it would be lifting the mask mandate for its customers.
“We encourage customers to follow the guidance of health officials, including, as appropriate, CDC guidelines that advise customers who are fully vaccinated are not required to wear masks while shopping,” it said on its website.
Yet it remained an outlier, with Starbuck, Target, Macy’s, CVS, and Walgreens revealing that they would keep mask mandates in place for both employees and customers.
The CDC has been slammed for not providing more clarity in its briefing on the new guidelines on Thursday.
It said that fully vaccinated people will not need to wear masks in indoor and outdoor spaces.
The guidelines still call for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings such as buses, trains, planes, prisons, and homeless shelters.
Masks will also still be required in healthcare settings.
Americans were advised that they will still need to follow regulations implemented by different local businesses and in various workplaces.
Unvaccinated people were also advised that they should only take masks off when outdoors in small gatherings.
It said they remained unsafe to abandon face coverings in movie theaters, at church, and at hair salons, as vaccinated people will now be able to do.
