Schools’ mask mandates ease as states see ‘inflection point’

Some governors are taking steps to end mask mandates in schools as COVID cases start to drop across the country. Masks in schools have become one of the most politically charged policy issues of the pandemic.

By

National News

February 9, 2022 - 9:51 AM

Students arrive wearing masks to Kozminski Community Academy in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/TNS) Photo by (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

Some U.S. governors are taking broad steps to discontinue school masking, saying the pandemic precaution is outweighed by widespread vaccination, lower transmission and the need for unimpeded instruction.

Governor Ned Lamont late Monday recommended that Connecticut end its mask mandate for schools and daycares on Feb. 28. New Jersey, where more than 1-in-9 residents is a public-school student, will end its order next month for 1.3 million in kindergarten through high school. Similar moves may come soon in New York and California.

“We’re not going to manage COVID to zero,” New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said Monday. “We have to learn how to live with COVID as we move from a pandemic to the endemic phase of this virus. We are finally nearing this inflection point.”

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