Masks no longer required in schools in the district's medium risk category

Mat-Su Borough School District Superintendent Dr. Randy Trani announced in a letter to district families that masks will no longer be required in schools in the medium risk COVID-19 status, or yellow operational zone, as of Monday.

“Based on many factors, including hospital capacity, our own data about the sources of current infection and the rate of spread in different environments, the lack of community support for ongoing mask requirements, as well as the availability of vaccines for all students and staff; the MSBSD will be changing our mitigation strategy with regard to masking when schools move to a yellow operational zone. While in a Yellow Operational Zone, we will strongly urge staff and students to wear masks but they will no longer be required,” Trani wrote.

As of Monday evening, there were 36 schools listed as medium risk, and another 11 at low risk.

Trani also wrote about parts of the protocol that will remain.

“One mitigation strategy that will not change is for students and adults who have tested positive for COVID. As with current practice, COVID positive individuals can return to school after day five, provided the individual is masked for the remainder of their ten-day quarantine regardless of which operational zone their school happens to be in at the time,” Trani wrote.

As of Monday, there have been 4,865 total COVID-19 cases within district schools. There were 93 new cases reported, with a seven-day case count of 452.

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at editor@frontiersman.com.