While Idaho’s Republican Gov. Brad Little was out of state Thursday, the lieutenant governor issued an executive order banning mask requirements.

Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, a Republican who last week announced a run for governor, signed the executive order while Little was at a Republican conference in Tennessee.

She said in a statement that she was acting as acting governor and that the executive order prohibits the state or other jurisdictions such as school districts from imposing mask mandates.

Idaho had never required that masks be worn statewide, though some cities and other jurisdictions had mandated them.

A message seeking comment from the governor’s office was not immediately returned Thursday evening.

“The Lt. Governor did not make Governor Little aware of her executive order ahead of time,” the governor’s office told NBC affiliate KTVB of Boise.

The statement to the station did not say whether Little would rescind the order, but it noted that there has not been a statewide mask mandate.