The Berrien County Health Department has issued a mask order for schools as a new academic year gets started. The department announced the mandate Wednesday, not long after the Berrien County Board of Health voted to support it. Speaking to the board Wednesday, Berrien County Interim Health Officer Courtney Davis said with increasing COVID numbers, it’s become clear strategies for reducing transmission are needed in schools.
“We already have 43 staff and students quarantined in two days of school, and those are school-connected exposure,” Davis said. “We will this week be reporting our first school outbreak. So we are getting increasingly concerned that the goal of keeping students in school is not going to be met with our current trajectory.”
Davis said requiring masks in schools will be a way to ensure kids stay in schools rather than having to spend time at home because they are quarantined or because their building is closed.
“We are still seeing an increase and need to have another layer of universal protection in our schools.”
The mask rule applies to all adults and students when indoors. It’s for pre-Kindergarten through grade 12. The health department says the order will be effective Monday, and will remain in effect until community transmission is categorized as low or moderate for a period of 21 days and no increase has been observed in hospitalizations and deaths during that same time. You can learn more here.
