Gov. Larry Hogan urged the Maryland State Board of Education to lift its statewide school mask requirement in a letter he sent to the board on Thursday.
“I applaud you for your efforts to support in-person instruction and your emphasis on social-emotional health,” Hogan wrote in his letter to the board.
Hogan added that “now, it is critical to move toward normalcy for students and families by rescinding the school mask policy.” He cited “substantial declines” in the state’s COVID-19 metrics and rising vaccination rates as evidence that it is safe for students, staff and others to go without face masks in schools.
Maryland State Department of Education spokeswoman Lora Rakowski said in a statement to Baltimore Fishbowl that “the State Board has received the Governor’s letter, appreciates the Governor’s input and is in the process of responding.”
In a response to Hogan later on Thursday, Maryland State Board of Education President Clarence Crawford referred back to the “research-based off ramps” that the board provided for the mask regulation.
Those provisions allow local superintendents and school boards to lift the requirement for their school district if certain conditions are met, regarding vaccination rates and transmission rates.
“The Maryland State Board of Education is watching with optimism as Covid-19 metrics improve in the State,” Crawford wrote. “In fact, the State Board issued the current not-to-exceed 180-day face covering emergency regulation with off ramps during the Omicron surge, in anticipation of an improving environment in which face coverings would no longer be needed as we learn to live with the virus.”
Rakowski also referred to a statement that the state education board made earlier this week.
“The Maryland State Board of Education is watching with optimism as Covid-19 metrics improve in the State because our goal has been and continues to be to provide safe in person instruction for our children and staff with minimal disruptions,” the board statement said.
The Maryland school board approved a statewide school mask mandate in September, requiring all students, teachers, staff members and visitors to wear face masks in public schools. The regulation will expire Feb. 25.
The board also approved an emergency regulation in December which included off-ramps for lifting mask mandates at the local level. The regulation allows schools to lift mask requirements if coronavirus transmission in their county is moderate or lower, or if vaccination rates in their school or local jurisdiction are above 80%.
The board said in their statement earlier this week that they will continue to review Maryland’s COVID-19 metrics to assess whether to continue that regulation.
“Our commitment has not changed…. The State Board has and continues to rely upon science, research, and guidance from public health experts, including the CDC and the Maryland Department of Health in its efforts to ensure schools remain safely open,” the board said in that statement. “We look forward to the day when this dark COVID cloud has been mitigated. We will continue to listen and work with our State and local partners in continuing this work.”
COVID-19 metrics in Maryland, which skyrocketed during an omicron-fuel surge, have been improving over the past several weeks, state data show.
After the daily number of new cases peaked at 17,252 confirmed cases newly reported on Jan. 9, the daily new cases has fallen to around 1,000 to 2,000 in the past seven days. The state reported fewer than 1,000 new daily cases from Monday through Wednesday.
Maryland’s seven-day average positivity rate, which peaked at 29.98% on Jan. 5, sat at 5.12% Wednesday.
Coronavirus-related hospitalizations have also continued to decline, reaching 986 hospital patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. That’s down from its peak of 3,462 coronavirus patients on Jan. 11.
However, as of Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still reporting high levels of community transmission of coronavirus in all 24 jurisdictions of Maryland, according to the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker.
The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday that while about 82% of Maryland children ages 12-17 have received at least one coronavirus vaccine shot, only about 42% of Maryland children ages 5-11 have received at least one shot.
Coronavirus vaccines remain unavailable for children under 5 years old.
In his letter to the state board of education, Hogan cited the opinions of some medical professionals who have called mask mandates and other coronavirus-related requirements to be lifted.
Among them was Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington university and a former Baltimore City health commissioner, who wrote a Washington Post column last week in which she advocated for the end of such requirements in areas of the country whose COVID-19 data were trending positively.
“New and possibly dangerous variants are likely to emerge. But it is precisely because of this future threat that we need to allow normalcy now,” Wen wrote.
In her column, Wen said temporarily lifting those requirements now would give momentary relief to people who have been fatigued by COVID-19 restriction. The move would also “restore public health authority” for when officials have to reimpose requirements.
But other public health experts, including doctors with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Loyola University Maryland, said that while Maryland is moving in the right direction it is premature to stop using face masks and other protective measures against coronavirus, WJZ reported.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include Maryland State Board of Education President Clarence Crawford’s response to Gov. Larry Hogan’s letter regarding school mask requirements.
