Since late August, the law of the land in Summit County has been that if 2% of a school’s population tests positive for COVID-19 in a two-week span, that school is under a mask mandate.
On Tuesday, Summit County Manager Tom Fisher told KPCW that might change after winter break.
“We expect even the mandates within schools that are currently in place to go away after the first of the year,” Fisher said.
The local public health emergency those mandates rely on is scheduled to lapse on Dec. 31 unless the County Council extends it. On Wednesday, the council is being asked to do just that. The extension would expire June 30.
“In order to be able to do anything next year we need to extend that order in order to have the option as a public health entity and as a county to put any controls in place if we need to,” Fisher said.
If the council extends the order, that would enable mask mandates to remain until June as well. But Health Director Phil Bondurant told KPCW that’s not what he will recommend to the County Council Wednesday.
Bondurant declined to elaborate on his reasoning, saying he would present supporting data during the discussion.
Fisher told KPCW the availability of COVID-19 vaccines for everyone 5 and older is a key difference between when the mask mandates were first imposed and today.
“We don't necessarily anticipate keeping those in place,” Fisher said of the mask mandates. “If you go back to what the reason that those mandates are in place in the first place, is because at the time, vaccinations weren't available for school-aged children, and now they are.”
If the mandates are repealed, Summit County schools would still be subject to the state law requiring a “test to stay” program if 30 students are diagnosed at any one school within a two-week span.
The public portion of the Summit County Council meeting is scheduled to start just after 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Richins Building at Kimball Junction.
The mask mandate discussion is scheduled to start at 4:40 p.m., just after an hourlong discussion about the Tech Center development proposal, though the agenda times rarely align with when discussions actually take place.
There is no scheduled opportunity for public comment. A link to watch the meeting is available at summitcounty.org.
