Alaska Senate President Peter Micciche said today that he is lifting the mask mandate in the Alaska Senate; when senators are at their desks they can take their face masks off. Desks in the House and Senate have been surrounded by Plexiglas since the Covid-19 virus arrived in Alaska.
The Legislative Council has the authority over the rest of the building, and has a working group within the council that is assigned to the mask, vaccine, and testing policies. House Speaker Louise Stutes has authority over the House Chambers and may make a similar announcement now that the CDC has said those who are vaccinated don’t need to wear masks indoors or out.
Senators will wear masks on the way to desks, but may then take them off. Micciche has expressed the desire to go back to normal — not a new normal with masks, but a normal normal.
Micciche made news known during his regular Friday press briefing. Outside the Capitol building, children were walking to school in Juneau, wearing masks on their way through neighborhoods, while in the open air. For some children in communities, masks are now the “normal normal,” but for those in the Capitol, things are returning to how they were a year and a half ago. But the reporters at the press briefing with Micciche kept their masks on.
