Washtenaw County Health Department Masking Mandate Reinforces SAS Status Quo

The Washtenaw County Health Department has reintroduced a mask mandate for all students in Washtenaw County school districts, as well as a mandate to isolate and quarantine staff students who show Covid-19 symptoms.

“SAS is already having staff and students wear masks in our schools. The new masking order from WCHD just confirms a mitigation strategy that we already have in place. One change is that our indoor athletes, and spectators, will now need to wear masks while in competition and while watching competitions,” Saline Superintendent Steve Laatsch told the Sun Times News in an email.

So in other words: nothing has really changed at Saline Area Schools. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention utilizes a Covid-19 tracking system that has four levels of community transmission that health officials use to track Covid-19; low, medium, severe and high.

The Delta variant of the Coronavirus is much more transmissible than previous variants and can infect much younger populations, who tend to get much sicker than before. That is why it is already Saline policy that all students and staff in grades six and younger are required to wear masks at all times. Masking for students and staff in grades seven and older are only recommended, but not required to mask in low or medium transmission levels, but are required to mask in severe or high transmission levels.

Washtenaw County has gone from severe to high transmission, so the net result is unchanged for students. Masks remain mandatory for all students and staff who travel to and from school by bus.

“We are grateful to our local schools and districts that have already done the work to require masks and that continue to work closely with us on isolation and quarantine measures,” says Jimena Loveluck, MSW, health officer with Washtenaw County Health Department said in a press release. “Unfortunately, we are trending in the wrong direction, and it’s imperative that we use all of our tools to prevent and control COVID in educational settings and provide in-person learning as safely as possible.”

The medical fact is that the only way to do away with masking and isolation and quarantine measures altogether is to stop community spread through vaccinations. According to the CDC, Washtenaw County recorded 449 cases in the seven days before September 1, with about ten recorded deaths.

While the overall number of cases in Michigan have taken a nose dive since vaccines were rolled out in record time, they are on the rise again because of the Delta variant. As of the publication of this article, almost every Michigan County is currently experiencing high community spread and only a handful are counted as severe. Only a handful of counties in the Midwest are currently reporting low transmission.

Image Credit: Scot Graden