PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Even though Pennsylvania is now on its way to allowing local school districts to make their own decisions on masks, the Philadelphia School District isn’t planning to lift its mandate until health officials say it’s safe.
“We’re going to continue masking until the guidance suggests otherwise,” Superintendent William Hite said, noting that the district made masking mandatory before Pennsylvania did.
“We think that it’s an appropriate mitigation strategy, and it’s one reason we’ve seen less than 1% of positive [COVID-19] cases throughout our schools. ”
Hite and Pennsylvania Education Secretary Noe Ortega spoke with reporters Tuesday at Lamberton Elementary School in Overbrook Park, after Ortega toured the school.
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Pennsylvania’s school mask mandate remains in effect until December 4 unless the state Supreme Court intervenes, after a Commonwealth Court ruling lifted a stay on a previous ruling allowing the mandate to be lifted.
“Remember, this is a case about the [state health] secretary’s ability to put an order in place, not the feasibilities of masks,” Ortega said.
The superintendent pointed out the district was able to vaccinate 1,000 children aged 5 to 11 last weekend.
Hite said the district is still working to establish weekly COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated students.
The Philadelphia Health Department in September recommended the student screening. Aside from testing students with COVID-19 symptoms and those playing sports and other activities, the district hasn’t had the resources to institute weekly screening.
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“It’s a capacity issue, and until we have all of the structures in place in order to do that, we’re struggling even with the young people who are symptomatic,” Hite said.
School nurses are particularly overburdened, Hite added.
“Nurses, as already indicated, are completely overwhelmed with the issues associated with testing, all of the immunization records that they have to do, and now dealing with the normal flu," he explained.
During his visit, Ortega read a book entitled “Be Kind” aloud to second graders and visited a third-grade digital literacy classroom.
