Mask Mandate Reinstated, Then Lifted, At School In Maplewood

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Freshmen at Columbia High School in Maplewood were told to wear masks last week after more than 3 members of the class tested positive for COVID, the district said.

"Students were able to return to mask-optional on the Monday, 10/3. At this point no other school has experienced an outbreak warranting for our local DOH to mandate masking," said district spokeswoman Anide Eustache on Monday.

A story in Village Green said that the students were asked to mask up after more than three of them tested positive in a 14-day period.

"The correspondence was shared with CHS' affected groups on Sept. 28," said Eustache, "and the mask mandate was required through Sept. 30 for the 9th grade class. At this point no other school has experienced an outbreak warranting for our local DOH to mandate masking."

She said that in August, 2022, the state's Department of Health said schools could transition away from investigating individual cases and focusing on "responding to clusters of cases and outbreaks."

As per the NJDOH and Communicable Disease Service (CDS), August 2022, "An outbreak of COVID-19 in a school/ECE setting is defined as three or more individuals (positive by RT-PCR or antigen) among students or staff with illness onsets within a 14-day period, who are epidemiologically linked1, do not share a household, and were not identified as close contacts of each other in another setting during standard case investigation or contact tracing."

The district had said in September that this year, they would require masking only in certain circumstances.

"We are no longer maintaining the weekly COVID dashboard of cases or sending school notifications for positive cases," Eustache said. "If there is an outbreak in a SOMSD classroom or school or program, our local health department notifies us and only the affected groups are notified with public health guidance."

According to the County of Essex, Maplewood reported five new COVID cases on Monday since the day before. A total of 49 Maplewood residents have died from the virus. A total of 3,411 residents of Essex County have died of the virus since the start of the pandemic.