PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — School districts in the Philadelphia area are once again grappling with COVID-19 mitigation efforts, including deciding whether students should be required to wear masks this fall.
As part of the CDC’s updated guidance last week, they recommend all K-12 schools should have students and staff wear masks, regardless of the level of virus and regardless of vaccination status.
Montgomery County Office of Public Health Medical Director Dr. Richard Lorraine acknowledged that the CDC’s one-size-fits-all approach stepped on their toes a bit, as they put together a dashboard that allows each district to see case rates per 100,000 and positivity rates within their district boundaries.
“There are pluses and minuses of approaching it this way. I think the big plus is an individualized approach is always a better approach. A one-size-fits-all basically makes each group equally unhappy," said Dr. Lorraine.
“Be that as it may, again the CDC has issued a blanket recommendation and the county aligned with that," he said.
Related
"We will continue to provide the school district-level data to the individual school districts, and they are responsible for making their final decision based on that data and based on the recommendation.”
Montgomery County’s guidance said that if a student is exposed to the virus by another, but they remained three feet apart and both students were masked, there is no required quarantine or isolation. There is also no need to quarantine if a student is vaccinated.
Bucks County is leaving it up to each district.
Delaware and Chester Counties are referring school district officials to the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Department of Education, both of which are following the CDC’s lead and recommending masks.