What Washington’s latest mask mandate means for attending Seahawks home games

This Saturday’s preseason matchup against the Denver Broncos will mark the first Seattle Seahawks home game in front of fans since the 2019 regular season finale versus the San Francisco 49ers. Unfortunately, as promising as things looked even one month ago, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the United States with the extremely infectious Delta variant.

On Wednesday, Washington governor Jay Inslee announced the return of the statewide mask mandate (regardless of vaccination status), effective August 23rd. As NFL regular season fast approaches, several teams have announced updated plans for entry re proof of vaccination, mask mandates, etc. You might be wondering where the Seahawks stand right now, so here’s the latest update from Lumen Field officials.

Lumen Field will continue to follow all state and local public health and government requirements for outdoor sporting events, as well as NFL protocols, to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all guests, players, and staff. For the Seahawks game on Saturday, August 21, in accordance with current guidelines, all guests are strongly encouraged to wear masks in indoor public spaces of the stadium regardless of vaccination status. Unvaccinated guests are required to wear masks at all times except while actively eating or drinking.

Per the state’s updated mask mandate going into effect August 23, until further notice, future Seahawks games will require all fans to wear masks in indoor areas of the stadium regardless of vaccination status. At this time, guests are not required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to attend Seahawks games at Lumen Field. Lumen Field will communicate updates on these policies to ticket holders as they are available.

So for this weekend you don’t have to wear a mask when you’re in the indoor spaces of Lumen Field but from the last preseason game and indefinitely through the regular season you’ll have to mask up. No mask mandate for when you’re seated outside, although in recent days we have seen cities such as Los Angeles require masks for large gatherings even if it’s outdoors.

Even though hospitalizations are overwhelmingly among the unvaccinated, infections are happening across both unvaccinated and fully vaccinated. Washington hospitals are filling up fast and have exceeded records previously set in December. Several states have brought back measures to slow the virus’ spread, but so far only Hawaii has reduced some capacity limits again.

The Seahawks’ home opener will be September 19th against the Tennessee Titans.