Pennsylvania schools -- including K-12, early learnning and day cares -- are now enforcing a mask mandate, regardless of vaccination status. | Adobe Stock
Pennsylvania schools -- including K-12, early learnning and day cares -- are now enforcing a mask mandate, regardless of vaccination status. | Adobe Stock
Pennsylvania's K-12 schools are now enforcing a mask mandate for all students and staff.
Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam signed an order requiring face coverings to be worn in all school settings, including school districts, brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools, private and parochial schools, career and technical centers, intermediate units, and early-learning and other child care settings, effective on Sept. 7, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
"The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a contagious disease that continues spreading rapidly from person to person in the world, the United States and this commonwealth. Despite periods of time when the virus seemed to wane, it, like all viruses, has continued to mutate and spread," said the Pennsylvania Department of Health's order.
The policy includes those who are vaccinated, with a few exceptions, according to 8WGAL News.
"Masks are required in all schools and early-learning and child care programs in Pennsylvania," Gov. Tom Wolf (D) said in a Sept. 7 Tweet. "This will keep kids in school, parents at work and communities safe. Thank you to the school districts that previously made the decision to require masking."
The push for this new mandate was made because of the delta variant’s more transmissible nature and the danger it poses, specifically to unvaccinated individuals, according to 8WGAL News. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend masking in schools.
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