Students and staff are no longer required to wear masks inside Antietam School District buildings.
At a meeting Monday night, the school board voted to drop the district’s mask mandate, making the wearing of masks optional. The change took effect today.
The change includes district transportation, meaning students no longer have to wear a mask when riding on school buses or other district vehicles.
Antietam made the shift to optional masking just days after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated some of its COVID guidance.
On Friday, the CDC announced a loosening of its guidelines on masking, no longer recommending they be worn indoors except in areas with high levels of severe COVID cases.
The new guidance relies heavily on hospitalization data. That is a shift from previous guidance, which was based on the rate of cases and risk of transmission in an area.
The result of the CDC’s update was that large portions of the U.S. that had previously been categorized as high-risk areas for COVID — including Berks County — were suddenly downgraded. Berks was moved to the substantial category for the first time in sixth months.
Along with getting rid of its mask mandate, Antietam also updated its COVID health and safety plan in other ways.
Effective March 11, Individuals exposed to COVID who are not showing any symptoms no longer are required to quarantine. The district will also discontinue local contact tracing for COVID cases as of April 1.
Source: Berkshire mont
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