Masks required outdoors within 6 feet of others

I walk for an hour every day along the sidewalks and beach path in Wailea. Walkers, runners and cyclists consistently pass within six feet of me without wearing masks.

Many may be unaware of the mask requirements for outdoor exercise. This includes the cyclist who erroneously claimed in his Tuesday letter that “hard exercise is exempt from mask wearing.”

In the most recent amendment to the public health emergency rules issued by the mayor on Dec. 24, it clearly states that “strenuous outdoor physical activity” is exempt from wearing masks only when “adequate physical distancing is both possible and practiced.”

Thus, cyclists who cannot ride more than six feet from sidewalks with pedestrians must wear masks. It also means that walkers and runners on sidewalks, including the Wailea beach path, where they cannot be more than six feet away from people they pass, must wear masks.

Yet, both kama‘aina and tourists alike walk and run on our sidewalks and beach paths, passing within inches of others, without wearing masks.

With the new mutation of the coronavirus that is so much easier to transmit, this thoughtless behavior becomes even more dangerous. If you want to walk, run or cycle without wearing a mask, you must do so in areas where you will never come closer than six feet of other people on the same paths. Otherwise, you must wear a mask whenever you approach others.

Please. It’s not only the law, it’s a matter of public health.

Lorri L. Jean

Wailea