Governor Ned Lamont announced that he would like the state’s mask mandate in K-12 public schools to extend past September 30, when his executive order is set to expire.
Citing concerns over the highly contagious COVID-19 delta variant, the mu variant, and the fact that children under 12 remain ineligible for the COVID vaccine, the governor said extending the mask mandate and his emergency powers makes sense for the state.
“We’ve been advocating since the start of the school year that universal masking is the first line of defense in preventing the spread of COVID in our school systems,” said CEA President Kate Dias. “Keeping in mind that a large portion of our students are not vaccinated, and we haven’t seen positivity rates drop as we did last June, it makes sense to keep a mask mandate in place.”
The governor has asked for a 90-day extension of his emergency powers, during which time he would reassess when or if to lift certain mandates.
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