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In light of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement Monday that the state would be adopting new masking policies in schools, Tri-Valley school districts are looking to county health officials for guidance on how to proceed.
After March 11, the state is moving from requiring masks to strongly recommending them in schools. Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District, Pleasanton Unified School District and Dublin Unified School District each sent statements to parents and families Monday, following the governor’s announcement.
All three of the districts said in their statements that their protocols will remain unchanged until the Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD) issues its guidance.
The county public health department released a statement of its own Monday, announcing its plan to review the state’s changes and assess the local impacts. It is expected that the department will provide direction later this week, according to local district officials.
Tri-Valley district officials said that they must adhere to the ACPHD’s guidelines, which could be stricter than the state’s.
The local districts’ approach aligns with the Alameda County Office of Education, which also said it will wait for ACPHD’s assessment before advising any protocol changes.
“In the meantime, we want our school communities and families to persist in their efforts to safeguard students and staff and take actions that minimize the risk of transmission to all, including vaccination of all those eligible, staying home when ill, utilizing testing where appropriate and reducing opportunities for exposure,” ACOE officials said.
California joins Oregon and Washington in this decision to adopt new masking policies in schools as case rates and hospitalizations decline across the west coast.
“California continues to adjust our policies based on the latest data and science, applying what we’ve learned over the past two years to guide our response to the pandemic,” Newsom said in a statement. “Masks are an effective tool to minimize spread of the virus and future variants, especially when transmission rates are high. We cannot predict the future of the virus, but we are better prepared for it and will continue to take measures rooted in science to keep California moving forward,” he added.
According to state officials, masks will still be required for everyone in high transmission settings like public transit, emergency shelters, health care settings, correctional facilities, homeless shelters and long-term care facilities.
On Tuesday, county health officer Dr. Nicholas Moss confirmed that masking requirements for schools would be announced by the end of the week during a Board of Supervisors regular meeting, according to a Bay City News report.
He said that the case rate in Alameda County continues to fall and was at 16 per 100,000 residents per day as of Tuesday.
Currently, hospitals in the county are caring for 139 people with COVID-19 and 24 of those are in intensive care units, according to Moss.
The decline the county is seeing is attributed to the fact that more people have been vaccinated. Moss said that nearly 83% of the county population is fully vaccinated and 61% of all fully vaccinated residents have received a booster shot.
The test positivity rate is 3.5% overall. In the most socio-economically disadvantaged communities of the county, the test positivity rate is 4.2%.
Editor’s note: Information from the Bay City News Service was used in this article.
Wait! We are still waiting? Waiting for a call from ‘on high’ to the shouts of ‘ Olly olly oxen free?’ This thing is over folks, if it ever was a thing. The psych Op of Mass Formation Psychosis has taken hold apparently. Their safety measures of masks, distancing, lockdowns, and experimental drugs ALL failed. What is happening now is they continue to vacuum up the remaining morsels of power, and are refusing to relinquish any of that power back to the people. Don’t even think that they have taken notice to our behavior and will strategically implement it again- perhaps for the Green New Deal maybe? Their ‘science-ism’ is complete.
Remember what Nancy Reagan once said about drugs: Just say NO.