Younger Students, High-Risk Residents Urged To Mask Up In MA

MASSACHUSETTS – Updated state guidance released Friday recommends — but does not require — unvaccinated students and fully vaccinated adults with a compromised immune system, or those who live with someone at heightened risk of severe coronavirus symptoms, mask up while indoors in response to the emerging highly contagious Delta variant.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said that, in response to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention information on the variant this week, it is "strongly recommended" that all students in grade 6 or younger wear facemasks while inside schools when the new academic year begins in about a month.

The education department said the updated guidance "is a recommendation for districts, and individual districts should make decisions based on their own particular circumstances."

The state Department of Public Health also advises that those with compromised immune systems or other have other factors that put them at higher risk for severe disease if they contract the coronavirus – or who live with a person who fits that description — should resume wearing masks indoor at stores, restaurants and other businesses even if they are fully vaccinated.

"This new guidance was developed to be as simple and as straightforward as possible," Gov. Charlie Baker said at a Friday news conference. "And we also tailored it to Massachusetts. We've made significant progress in the COVID fight. We lead the nation in vaccination rates among big states. And as a result, we have one of the lowest hospitalization rates in the country."

Other recommendations from the education department include:

• DESE and DPH also strongly recommend that unvaccinated staff in all grades, unvaccinated students in grades 7 and above, and unvaccinated visitors wear masks indoors, in alignment with the statewide advisory on masking.
• DESE and DPH recommend that schools allow vaccinated students to remain unmasked.
• Any child or family who prefers to mask at school should be supported in this choice.
• By federal public health order, all students and staff are required to wear masks on school buses at this time.
• All staff and students must wear masks while in school health offices. Additional guidance for school health professionals is forthcoming from DPH.

One requirement in the updated school guidance is that all schools be open five days per week for in-person learning for the upcoming school year.

"We fully expect cities and towns to make adjustments to do what's right for their specific school districts," Baker said. "One thing is clear. All schools in all districts must be open every day to every student no matter what."

While the guidance is a shift from previous recommendations that masks and social distancing not be required in schools and that vaccinated adults can go without masks indoors in most public spaces, it falls well short of the sweeping school mask mandates the CDC recommended this week and the CDC's recommendation that areas where coronavirus transmission is "substantial or high" — which according to most recent CDC metrics would include Bristol, Plymouth, Hampden counties and Cape Cod in Massachusetts — encourage masks for all vaccinated and unvaccinated people indoors and in crowded public settings.

Baker said the CDC's most metrics and messaging were too confusing to follow in practice.

"Part of the reason why we believe you should do statewide guidance is: What if you live in one county and work in another?" Baker said. "What if you decide to go on vacation, or go out to dinner, in one county and live in another?

"And how is anybody supposed to keep track — given all the stuff that's on in their daily life — of a rolling, seven-day average in which one of four elements is going to determine — based on whichever one is highest — whether a district is substantially at risk or significantly at risk?"

The new Department of Public Health guidance now advises "a fully vaccinated person should wear a mask or face covering when indoors (and not in your own home) if you have a weakened immune system, or if you are at increased risk for severe disease because of your age or an underlying medical condition, or if someone in your household has a weakened immune system, is at increased risk for severe disease, or is unvaccinated."

"Our view is that the people who have the most to lose here from COVID are the elderly, for whom we're doubling down on many of the initiatives we put in place in place last fall and were very successful in keeping them safe, and making it clear that if you have a severe condition with the potential to be seriously affected by COVID you should take extra precautions and wear a mask, and maintain some degree of distance when you're indoors (even if vaccinated)."

The school guidance broke with CDC recommendations when it comes to vaccinated staff and vaccinated students 12 years old or older.

"You have some districts where 85 to 95, and some cases almost 100 percent, of all the kids between the ages of 12 and 17 are vaccinated," Baker said, "and you have other districts where the numbers are much lower than that. That's part of the reason why we believe we should issue this as guidance with recommendations that are built on this idea that if kids are vaccinated they don't need to wear a mask if the district decides they don't need to wear a mask."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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