With school opening almost here, Pa. scrambles to prepare for covid
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The federal government dropped new face mask recommendations for students just as school districts’ plans for dealing with covid-19 came due in Pennsylvania.
State Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam described the timing as “challenging” during a discussion with the PennLive/The Patriot-News editorial board on Wednesday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends face masks for all students, even if they’re vaccinated. It comes as most of the United States, including Pennsylvania, faces an unexpected wave of new cases, fueled by the especially contagious delta variant.
Beam said the state would like to see all schools require face masks.
She further said it’s possible the state will mandate face masks in schools.
“At this stage, all bets are on the table,” she said.
Beam said discussions within the governor’s office and the state department of education involve “whether or not steps should be taken to move forward with anything beyond what the CDC put out last week.”
She said the overriding goal is to keep schools open.
“We want to preserve in-person education to the extent that it can be done safely,” Beam said. “We know what the last year, the last year and a half, has done for a lot of students who had to do virtual learning, and that’s not something we want to perpetuate.”
She said “layered” tactics, involving things such as social distancing, are also key.
Another key part, although still being finalized, will provide quick testing of students and staff with the goal of stemming outbreaks that might close the school. School districts will be able to choose whether or not to participate. Federal funding will pay for it.
The majority of Harrisburg region school districts don’t plan to require face masks. Beam on Wednesday said she hasn’t reviewed the school plans due last week, but expects that’s also the case statewide.
Outside of schools, Beam said Pennsylvania’s plan for dealing with covid-19 continues to rely on vaccination rather than mandates, although she added “all options are on the table to try to keep us safe.”
Citing CDC statistics she said hold true in Pennsylvania, Beam said 97% of people hospitalized with covid-19 are unvaccinated, and 99% of deaths involve unvaccinated people.
She acknowledged some “breakthrough” infections of vaccinated people, but said they are still less likely to wind up in the hospital or to die.
Beam said 52.6% of the full Pennsylvania population is vaccinated, as are 63.2% of people 18 or older and 84% of people 65 or older.
Vaccination, she said, can prevent Pennsylvania from seeing a repeat of the deadly surge of last winter, when vaccination was just beginning.
“I can’t emphasize enough that we are in a different realm in that we have the vaccines,” she said.