Public health officials in Oregon have recently lifted the state’s outdoor mask mandate, but they are working to keep a separate set of indoor mask requirements for places like schools and hospitals indefinitely in place. Oregon’s first indoor mask mandate was imposed in May 2020 and lifted this June, after the number of COVID-19 cases fell. Gov. Kate Brown, who promised to remove many restrictions once 70 percent of adults received at least their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, nonetheless reinstated the mandate in August, saying at that time that without new interventions, COVID-19 hospitalizations driven by the more transmissible Delta variant would “completely overwhelm” the state’s hospitals. Under the current mandate, which is set to expire in February 2022, all individuals aged 5 and older, regardless of their vaccination status, have to wear masks in all indoor public spaces, such as schools, healthcare facilities, homeless shelters, and public transit. …