Pennsylvania mandates masks in K-12 schools, day cares
HARRISBURG, PA. >> Masks will be required in all Pennsylvania public and private schools, as well as child care facilities, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Tuesday, reversing course amid a statewide COVID-19 resurgence that is filling hospital beds and infecting more young people just as students return to class.
The Department of Health order will take effect Tuesday, Sept. 7 — a week or more after the start of school in many districts — and will require students, teachers and staff to wear face coverings when inside, regardless of vaccination status, the Wolf administration said.
The Democratic governor said a universal, statewide order was necessary after most of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts did not impose their own mask mandates. State health officials said more than 5,000 students have tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the academic year.
“It’s crucial for students and staff to wear masks in school. This is a necessary step to keep our students and teachers safe and in the classroom, where they all need to be and where we want them all to be,” Wolf said at a news conference.
He said the masking order would be reevaluated in early October.
Less than a month ago, Wolf had ruled out a statewide mask mandate for schools after requiring them last year. But the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, which is driving nearly all new infections in the state, has changed the administration’s calculus about what is needed to keep students in class.
Pennsylvania is now averaging more than 3,200 new, confirmed infections daily — 20 times the number of cases it was reporting on a typical day in early July. Some 1,850 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, up more than sevenfold since last month. Deaths have doubled in two weeks to about 20 per day.
Most troubling, Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam said Tuesday, is an explosive rise in the number of children testing positive — up nearly 300% in six weeks. She said nearly half of those pediatric infections were in children under 12, too young to be vaccinated.
“The reality that we are living in now is extremely different than it was just one month ago,” Beam said.
The Wolf administration outlined several limited exceptions to the mandate. A mask doesn’t have to be worn if it would cause or worsen a medical condition, or if it would make a task unsafe. Student-athletes don’t have to wear one while they’re playing, officials said.
Wolf took action after a month in which the masking of children was the focus of intense debate at school board meetings around the state. Some parents argued masks are necessary to help tamp down spread and keep schools open for in-person learning. Others contended they make it hard for their children to breathe and are tantamount to child abuse.