Masks, Screening, Vaccines Recommended For Back-To-School

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD — As kids prepare to return to the classrooms this fall, the Anne Arundel County Department of Health has suggested schools implement universal face mask policies and conduct COVID testing in schools.

In guidelines released by the county health department, officials noted that a "comprehensive masking strategy is a critical piece of a multilayered COVID-19 mitigation strategy."

"Reducing the level of spread in schools will help keep students in school safer, decrease absences and decrease the need for quarantining students. For many students who are not eligible to get the vaccine, either because of age or medical condition, the more others are vaccinated, the less likely they are to get infected," the health department shared.

The health department recommended that all kindergarten through 12th grade schools in Anne Arundel County should implement universal masking in indoor settings for students, teachers, staff and visitors. In outdoor settings, masks are not needed for unvaccinated individuals except in crowded settings.

The Anne Arundel County Department of Health also suggested those same schools implement testing to help prevent transmission of COVID-19 among students and staff. Screening testing would help identify positive cases in symptomatic and asymptomatic students and staff, while diagnostic testing would be used when an individual shows symptoms of COVID-19 or has had a known exposure to a confirmed positive case. Screening could be done by sorting students and staff by extracurricular activities, by grade or a broad sample.

The health department also recommended everyone eligible for a vaccine get it before school starts.

The health department based its recommendations upon the following factors, it said:

• The delta variant spreads more easily than previous variants.
• Vaccinated individuals can spread the delta variant.
• Children 11 and younger are not yet eligible for vaccination.
• Significant numbers of children 12 and older are not yet vaccinated.
• The purpose of a mask is to both protect the wearer from being infected and to prevent an infected person from transmitting to other people.
• With schools returning to full capacity, distancing indoors is recommended at 3 feet or the maximum distance possible if less than 3 feet.
• Updated contact tracing guidance from the CDC notes that for students who are 3 to 6 feet from each other if both the case and contact students are masked, the contact will not need to quarantine.

The county released this information for schools after Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman announced that effective Sept. 13, county employees who are not vaccinated will be required to provide a negative COVID test result each week in order to report to work. Effective Thursday, all county employees and the general public will be required to wear masks inside all county-owned buildings.

“I have spoken to many of our department heads and union leaders about this, and while we understand that there will be some resistance, we expect that most of our employees will welcome this news,” Pittman said. “We are fully capable of vaccinating everyone who is currently not vaccinated before the fall weather comes, before flu season, before COVID surge season.”