Students, staff required to wear masks as they return to school, Washington governor says

Students and staff in schools in Washington state will continue to be legally required to wear masks due to the rise in COVID-19 cases as schools open in the fall, Gov. Jay Inslee said in a news conference Wednesday.

He will continue to re-evaluate the requirement in the coming weeks and months as students return to class, he said.

He also is recommending that even people who have been vaccinated against the COVID-19 vaccine continue to wear face coverings indoors in public places, particularly in counties where there are high numbers of daily cases. But he is not making that a legal requirement.

Public health officials say it is particularly important for people who are vaccinated to consider voluntarily wearing a mask in public places if they are immunocompromised or have an increase risk for COVID — including people with certain health conditions or people older than 60 — or if they have someone in their household who is.

The requirement for all unvaccinated people to wear masks in public continues, said Dr. Umair Shah, Washington state secretary of health.

“We know today the state of Washington is at risk because of the rising cases of COVID in the delta variant that is so dangerous,” Inslee said.

The state is in its fifth wave of coronavirus infections because of the variant and “we know we have to remain vigilant, in part, and primarily because not enough people have been vaccinated with this life-saving drug that is now available to us,” he said.

The delta variant is twice as infectious as the initial strain of the coronavirus and is more likely to cause serious illness, the governor said.

COVID-19 cases due to the delta variant accounted for 70% of all cases in Washington in the first two weeks of the month. Now it appears to account for about 90% of cases, Shah said.

“It is easily the most dangerous mutation to date of this virus,” Inslee said.

School mask requirements

The governor made the decision to continue requiring masks among students in K-12 schools in part because children under 12 are not eligible for a vaccine, and the delta virus poses a greater risk to younger people than previous COVID strains, according to the governor’s staff.

Requiring masks in schools is intended to minimize transmission of COVID-19 not only within schools, but to staff and student families and the broader community.

The Washington Education Association praised the governor’s decision.

“WEA believes every student has the right to a safe, equitable education, including students with health conditions or disabilities,” said WEA president Larry Delaney in a statement.

Physical distancing requirements in school will remain at three feet in classrooms and shall not prevent in-person learning, according to the governor’s office.

However, guidance for distancing in lunchrooms and other common areas has been simplified, according to the governor’s staff.

More mask requirements possible

Inslee’s recommendation for vaccinated people to wear masks in public places indoors, such as restaurants and stores, echoes recommendations made this week by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

“We know that vaccine works. We also know that masks work,” Shah said.

The governor chose to make wearing masks in public by vaccinated people a recommendation rather than a requirement after some people got the vaccine in hopes of not wearing a mask, Inslee said.

He is considering stricter requirements for some other groups of vaccinated people.

State officials are in discussions about a possible vaccine requirement for state government employees. They also are considering whether there should be a vaccination requirement for people in jobs who put customers or others at risk if they are not vaccinated.

“We want to save every life in the state of Washington, east and west, urban and rural,” Inslee said.

The state is making plans for steps to increase the vaccination rate in the coming weeks, and taking a more assertive stand, he said.

“It is maddening that we have a life-saving medicine that can save people’s lives, it’s free, (and) that we still have to be in this position,” Inslee said.

He blames misinformation on social media for low rates of vaccination in some of the state’s counties. In Garfield County just 32% of people old enough to receive the vaccine are vaccinated, he said.

With 96% of hospitalized COVID patients unvaccinated, the state could risk having its hospitals overrun if more people do not get vaccinated and the number of new cases continues to climb, Inslee said.

This story was originally published July 28, 2021 at 11:42 AM with the headline "Students, staff required to wear masks as they return to school, Washington governor says."