School Mask Mandate Stays In Place
Sacramento, CA– California mask mandate will be officially coming to a end on February 16th but will remain in place for public schools till at least February 28th. This announcement was made by Health and Human Services Secretary Dr.Mark Ghaly in a press conference that went over COVID-19 data and how the state is adjusting with lower case counts.
Ghaly said the state will take a look at masks in schools on February 28th with the mandate potentially being lifted based on a number of factors including case rates, hospitalizations, pediatric hospitalizations, and vaccine rates. He explained
“It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when, There will be no change to school masking requirements for now. We will reassess the data on Feb. 28.”
It was cited that extra time is needed in order to give schools and communities time to prepare a policy for what will happen when masks are no longer required. Some of the data also discussed was a 75% percent drop in cases compared to last month and a 40% percent decline in hospitalizations.