Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul's suggestion that she'll impose a mask mandate for schools across New York State after she takes over as governor next week is drawing reaction from the lukewarm to the negative from Monroe County officials.
The president of the Greece Central School District Board of Education isn't pleased with Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul's plan. Sean McCabe says this is an issue that should be decided schooL-district-by-school district, and those districts should be guided by their own local conditions.
McCabe spoke on the Bob Lonsberry show. He says next week, the Greece School Board was planning to adopt a variable masking policy; one that would require masks for now while the infection rate is high, but allow students and staff to take off the masks once infection rates fall, as they did this spring. He also says the state shouldn't be changing their policy of leaving masks up to individual districts just two weeks before school starts.
Meanwhile, Monroe County Executive Adam Bello says there's no specific number of cases that would cause his administration to recommend county school districts order their students to wear masks. Bello says he's confident local school districts will make the best possible decisions for their students and employees.
In a news conference this afternoon, Monroe County Director of Public Health Dr. Michael Mendoza says he's also been meeting with school athletic directors about COVID-19 exposure and contact sports, particularly football. He says the on-field risk isn't a big one. There's very little evidence of football players infecting each other with COVID on the field. Locker rooms and socializing before and after the games are more risky.
Both Bello and Mendoza, along with officials from Rochester Regional Health and UR Medicine, continue to urge people to get vaccinated. They say the vaccine isn't perfect, but more than 80 percent of the patients who got COVID locally since March were NOT vaccinated.