BOSTON - Governor Charlie Baker announced Wednesday that public school students and staff in grades K-12 will no longer be required to wear masks when they return from February vacation on February 28.
“With Massachusetts a national leader in vaccinating kids, combined with our robust testing programs, it is time to lift the mask mandate in schools and give students and staff a sense of normalcy after dealing with enormous challenges over the past two years. We have all the tools to keep schools safe as we move into dealing with the next phase of managing COVID,” Baker said in the press conference.
Local school districts have the option to keep their own mask mandates in place. Masks will still be required on school buses per federal order.
Baker’s announcement came two days before the latest COVID numbers for the two-week period ending Wednesday were released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
North Attleboro recorded a positivity rate of 11.60 percent of the 2,155 tests performed over the last two weeks. That percentage equals 231 new cases over the past two weeks. The rate was 15.76 percent last week or 370 new cases, 22.18 percent two weeks ago or 601 new cases, and 25.19 three weeks back or 833 new cases.
Plainville’s positivity rate was 13.06 percent of the 720 tests performed over the past two weeks. That percentage equals 87 new cases over the past two weeks. The rate was 15.15 percent last week or 115 new cases, 19.12 two weeks ago or 169 new cases, 23.29 percent three weeks back or 259 new cases.
North Attleboro and Plainville are still higher than the state rate of 6.48 percent percent, however. The state’s number was 10.06 percent last week. It was at 20.61 percent for the two-week period ending January 20.
North Attleboro
How will this impact North Attleboro public school students? North TV asked that question of North Attleboro Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Antonucci on Thursday.
Click the first video below to stream his answer.
North Attleboro Director and Public Health Nurse Anne Marie Fleming spoke to North TV on Thursday about the latest development in the war on COVID.
Click the second video below to stream her comments.
Plainville
The Plainville board of health met in a special session Wednesday night and voted to end the mask mandate inside town buildings and make masks a recommendation.
Rausch
State Senator Becca Rausch did not agree with the governor’s decision. The senator representing North Attleboro and Plainville released the following statement, “I support the experts at the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics who still recommend universal indoor school masking to keep students, teachers, and their families safe from COVID-19. I hold in my heart all the Bay Staters worried by today’s announcement, especially our families with older adults, immunocompromised individuals, and children under five who are still ineligible to get vaccinated. Now more than ever, Massachusetts families deserve the safety and peace of mind through access to complete school-level vaccination data, statewide consistency in vaccination rules and exemption protocols, and targeted public health outreach in communities with low rates of vaccination, all of which would become law by enacting my comprehensive immunization infrastructure legislation, the Community Immunity Act.”
