Gov. John Carney said on Tuesday that Delaware is entering a new stage in its fight against COVID-19, which is why officials are choosing to loosen restrictions as cases and hospitalizations plummet.
The state has passed its peak of this current surge. Health officials reported 259 COVID-19-related hospitalizations on Monday, the lowest figure since early December.
“So what does all this data mean?” Carney asked during his COVID-19 briefing. “It means that we’re moving into a new phase.”
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Starting Friday, Delawareans will no longer be required to wear a mask in indoor public places. Students in kindergarten through 12th grade are still required to wear a mask in public and private schools until at least March 31. The rule also will apply to child care facilities.
State officials said the mask requirement is being extended to give parents time to vaccinate their children. Yet Delaware continues to have one of the lowest pediatric vaccination rates in the Northeast, specifically among younger children.
Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the Division of Public Health, said on Tuesday that continuing to educate parents on the benefits of the vaccine is seen as the best way to increase vaccination rates among children.
Delaware was one of several states to recently announce it was dropping the mask mandate for schools in the coming weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still recommending indoor mask wearing for schools.
The governor said he doesn’t view his decision to drop the mask mandate in schools as diverging from federal guidance. Instead, it’s taking a step back.
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“We’re looking at the whole picture and the trajectory of this,” Carney said. “We’re in less of an emergency situation than we’ve been, where the state determines what happens in each individual school district and school.”
While the White House provides guidance, decisions “really have to be made here on the local level,” he said.
Under the governor’s announcement, school districts will be able to make their own mask policies after March 31. It’s unclear how many districts will extend the mask mandate.
This past summer, many school district meetings were dominated by the topic of a mask mandate, in which dozens of parents in attendance vocally protested the state’s decision. Some meetings had to be canceled as a result.
Carney said he doesn’t view mask mandates to be a political issue.
“Half the people who have talked to me said ‘You’re doing it too soon,” he said of lifting the mask mandate. “Other half: ‘You’re not doing it soon enough.’
“We know that there are competing interests to be balanced, not political interests, but interest with respect to the best learning environments and the safest learning environments.”
Contact Meredith Newman at (302) 256-2466 or at mnewman@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MereNewman.
