Mid-Michigan school districts reinstate mask mandates
East Lansing and Waverly are seeing more COVID cases
EAST LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Just as the 2021-22 school year is winding down, mask mandates are coming back in Mid-Michigan.
COVID cases have been going up, but not enough to recommend “everyone” to mask up.
May 18, 2022: Michigan reports 29,267 new coronavirus cases, 78 deaths over past 7 days
As of Thursday afternoon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Ingham County is at medium risk for contracting COVID-19, which is a trigger for mask requirements at East Lansing Public Schools.
Read: ‘All staff and students’ back to masks at East Lansing Public Schools
“We still had a lot of kids wearing a mask when they became optional on April 18,” said Dori Leyko.
Leyko said the mask requirement is based on the CDC guidelines. She said there have been taking extra steps to slow COVID in the classroom.
“We had a few classes that we had put temporary mask requirements back on when we identified potential to spread within a classroom. We had one elementary classroom go remote for a couple of days last week,” said Leyko.
Waverly Community Schools’ mask mandate starts Monday.
“We have several students and staff members who are positive and we feel the end of year activities are important for our students so we want to add another layer of protection,” said Kelly Blake, Waverly Superintendent.
Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail said she’s happy to see districts not waiting for the area to have higher COVID rates to take precautions.
“For the school districts to be paying attention to those indicators and making decisions based on them, which are recommendations, is highly appropriate,” said Vail.
East Lansing High School’s graduation is happening at the MSU auditorium, so people will have to follow MSU’s rules. As of Thursday, there’s no mask requirement on campus.
Waverly’s graduation is outside, which isn’t affected by the mask requirement.
Read more: A third of US should be considering masks, officials say
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