Gov. Eric Holcomb signed an executive order on Friday, May 28, to adjust various pandemic requirements beginning in June, while also extending the state’s public health emergency to enable Indiana to receive federal pandemic emergency funding. 

The order removed the mask mandate starting June 1 in state facilities, except for buildings such as state prisons, state hospitals, the Indiana Veterans Home and the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy. Masks are still required inside COVID testing and vaccination clinics.

Holcomb also said that state employees will begin returning to the office June 7 and will be fully back July 6.

Face masks will be required in public schools through June 30, although they are not required while outdoors. Beginning in July, local school boards will have the power to enact measures for their school districts. 

“Small business owners welcome the end to the mask mandate. Unfortunately, they have often been put in the position of being the ‘mask police.’ At this point in the recovery from the pandemic, whether or not to wear a mask should be a personal choice. Of course, business owners still have the option to require mask-wearing in their facility. Every business and every industry is different,” said Barbara Quandt, NFIB State Director in Indiana.