CT School Mask Mandate: Final Decision Reached By Legislature

CONNECTICUT — The state Senate voted mostly along party lines to extend the statewide school mask mandate until the end of the month, Feb. 28, and then leave the decision up to local boards of education.

The final tally was 21 to 14 with one senator absent. Democratic senators supported the measure, while Republicans were opposed; Sen. Cathy Osten (D-Ledyard) joined Republicans in voting no. Republicans proposed an amendment to give parents the right to opt their children out of local mask mandates, but it didn't pass.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s emergency powers expire Feb. 15, which includes his active emergency orders related to the pandemic.

The state Department of Health and Department of Education reserve the right to reinstate the statewide mandate up until June 30 in the event of another surge of coronavirus cases.

Members of Lamont’s administration said the end of February would allow coronavirus case counts to come down a little more. It also comes after a President’s Day holiday for most schools.

Connecticut is part of a wave of other states that recently announced plans to drop school mask mandates. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced that the statewide school mask mandate would end in the middle of March. The governors of Delaware and Oregon also announced similar plans.

Reported coronavirus cases among students and staff at Pre-K-12 schools have dropped in recent weeks, but remain higher than the beginning of the school year. There were 1,755 cases among students and 353 among staff between Feb. 3-9.

Coronavirus hospitalizations have plummeted in recent weeks and were below 500 patients as of Feb. 11; coronavirus hospitalizations peaked in mid-January, with more than 1,900 patients hospitalized at once.

See also: COVID-19 CT: Infections, Hospitalizations, Town-By-Town Numbers

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Federal guidance for masking in schools hasn’t changed. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the agency’s universal masking guidance in schools will remain, according to the Washington Post.

The Food and Drug Administration plan to fast-track coronavirus vaccines for children under 5 was recently put on hold. There were a low number of coronavirus cases in the clinical trial, and the agency wanted to wait for more data from the third dose trials, Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in a CNBC interview. Gottlieb is a Pfizer board member and former FDA commissioner.