Masking Update In New COVID Era: Here's What Local Officials Will Be Looking At In CT

CONNECTICUT — As Connecticut prepares to enter its third year of government-imposed pandemic precautions and mandates, the governor and the state's top public health official agreed the social dynamics were shifting.

"We are at a point where we do need some personal responsibility when it comes to learning how to live with this virus," Dr. Manisha Juthani, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health, said during a news conference Monday. "If you know that you are vulnerable, if you know you are going into a setting where you could be particularly vulnerable, wearing a mask is always going to be protective. I think we are going to have to learn the different interventions we can do to take care of ourselves, personally."

Specifically, school districts will need to look at the vaccination rates in their communities and among their schools' student and staff populations, to properly gauge their course of action regarding continuing masking.

Gov. Ned Lamont, whose pandemic emergency powers expire Feb. 15, has recommended to the state legislature that Connecticut's school mask mandate be lifted Feb. 28. The decision to require students to wear a mask would then be up to individual school districts and daycare centers.

Should the school mandate be formally lifted, Juthani said that districts could "certainly continue to mask," and DPH would provide local health officials with guidance.

"We still know that masking is an effective way to keep kids in school, but now schools will have that opportunity to decide for themselves what works best for their community at the local level," Juthani said.

But there is no one size that fits all

"At the local level ... school boards can assess their population and decide with their community and with other leaders in their community what works best for them." It's a tall ask, but municipalities "have more public health tools at their disposal now than they did two years ago, vaccination being first and foremost," according to Juthani.

The "nature of the variant" makes any kind of rigid metric for masking or not masking difficult to enact, according to the governor.

"I would tell you that if it was delta, which is a lot more virulent, I'd probably be stricter," Lamont said. "When it's omicron, which is so much less virulent, and you have many more people who have a certain immunity, I would have an easier metric to hit. It's tough to have an absolute number."

Lamont said that the DPH recommendation for daycare centers serving the state's youngest residents who are still ineligible for vaccination will be to maintain their mask mandate, but the guidance is not binding. "I think, very strongly, that local control is key, especially when it comes to schools," Lamont said.

There remain a "fair number of schools where teachers would not be comfortable coming in, unless they kept the mask mandate a little longer," according to the governor, but he reckoned that most anyone regularly going into a Connecticut school has already been vaccinated.

"We've got well over 95 percent of our teachers vaccinated, most of them are boostered. I'd say we have a vast majority of the high schoolers have been vaccinated, at least with (one) shot. When it comes to kindergarten through 8th grade, we're probably a little over a half," Lamont said, in a pitch to parents during a Monday news conference. "You have three weeks. If you have any concerns at all, here's your chance to step up."

On Tuesday, the daily positivity rate reported by DPH had climbed two and a third percentage points overnight. There were 1,343 positive cases were logged, out of18,982 tests taken.

"What we have seen with this omicron wave is that we have a very rapid uptick, and now we are seeing a much more rapid 'downtick' than what we have seen with any previous variant," Juthani said, noting that the results of the now-common home self tests are not tracked by public health officials.

The milder cases of the virus, typical for those caused by the omicron variant, will also skew the daily positivity rate higher. Despite that, the infection rate has dropped steadily for the past month.

Juthani cautioned that, "Many of the metrics people have been using to follow throughout this pandemic may not mean the same things today as they did earlier. Percent positivity means something different (now) than it did when we were only doing PCR tests."

Hospitalizations, however, remain a very reliable metric to determine the severity of the virus' community impact, according to Juthani.

On Tuesday, DPH reported the number of Connecticut residents in the hospital with COVID-19 was 607, down 24 beds overnight. Many of those in hospitals with COVID-19 are asymptomatic and were not admitted because of the virus. According to data released Tuesday, about 48 percent of those hospitalized in Connecticut with COVID-19, or 293patients, are fully vaccinated.

"Hospitalizations are coming down, but we are not where we need to be just yet," Juthani said. "And they are coming down a lot faster than they did in the past because we have a milder variant."

Currently, the highest number of the hospitalized —209 — are in Hartford County.

Juthani said she was "hopeful the numbers will continue to go down, and we can make these decisions safely as we continue to make our way through this pandemic."

If not?

"If I saw there was a variant that looked like (it had) a real possibility for community spread, that something that happened in Pomfret could also affect other parts of the state in a big way, the same way we had a year and a half ago, then I would do something on a statewide basis," Lamont said. "I don't see that right now. I think we have the ability to control the infections, control the spread, and most importantly, you have the ability to keep yourself safe."

See also: Connecticut School Mask Mandate: Take The Patch Survey

• 3 Officers Injured During Attempted Larceny Arrest: PD
• 'My Guardian Angel': Pregnant Woman Rescued By Off-Duty Fireman