LEBANON — For Jenica Nelan, Lebanon School Board vice chairwoman, the time has come.
“I actually think we’re overdue for removing masking and distancing mandates in our schools,” she said at last week’s board meeting.
Nelan said she feels that given that COVID-19 vaccines are widely available and several states around the country are dropping mask requirements, it’s time to give Lebanon students and teachers a chance to interact with each other in academic and extracurricular settings without face coverings. She said she’s concerned that masks may be contributing to speech delays and other challenges for students.
She proposed that Lebanon schools drop their mask requirement beginning on Feb. 21, following the schools’ February vacation.
But the rest of the board decided the time has not yet come. The measure was rejected in a 7-1 vote.
“I get that everyone is tired of masks,” board member Stephen Kantor said. “I think we still are in the midst of a pandemic. Numbers are trailing down, but they’re not gone yet.”
Kantor noted that the city’s schools are still seeing several COVID-19 cases each day. Other board members said they weren’t sure how many students have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or how the teachers and other school staff might feel if masks were no longer required in schools. They suggested that the issue be put on an agenda for a later date.
Lebanon school officials are among the school and municipal leaders in the Upper Valley who are eyeing declining COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations for signs of an appropriate time to roll back mitigation measures such as masking. Few local officials have a clear view of what thresholds they’re looking to hit before dropping a mandate.
“The council has not yet discussed a rescission of the mask requirement, but I anticipate that we will begin to have this discussion in the relatively near future,” Lebanon Mayor Tim McNamara said. “We do not have a threshold at this time.”
He added that the guidance provided by the New Hampshire Medical Society last year prior to the delta variant outbreak does not appear to have been updated since omicron’s arrival, and therefore it may be of limited relevance in the most recent surge.
For now at least, Twin State and federal health officials still recommend masks in schools and other public spaces due to the high rate of community transmission. Neither state has a statewide mask mandate in effect, but some municipalities, including several in the Upper Valley, have enacted their own. Most Upper Valley schools have required masks all year.
Municipal boards in Hartford and Woodstock renewed their temporary indoor mask mandates last week. Similar mandates remain in effect in Norwich, Thetford, Windsor, Lebanon and Hanover.
Vermont communities with mandates in place are required to reconsider them every 30 days. The law allowing municipalities to mandate masks is scheduled to sunset on April 30.
Officials in Thetford and Windsor said they weren’t certain what the future holds for their mandates.
“I am noting the fact that various states, including possibly our own, are doing away with mask requirements even in schools and am thinking we may be approaching the time we have to go back to leaving the decision to individuals,” Thetford Selectboard chairwoman Sharon Harkay said.
Still, she said, all five members of the Selectboard differ in their “comfort level with the virus” and she wants to find out more about what the medical community thinks before the board next votes on the mask mandate on Feb. 21.
Windsor Town Manager Tom Marsh said he doubts that the Selectboard there will renew its current mandate when it next takes it up on Feb. 22.
“Frankly, our board has been divided on the issue,” Marsh said. “Given the discussion at the last meeting, I would be quite surprised if continuation of the mandate were to be supported by a majority of the board at that meeting.”
Meanwhile, Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin said she thinks it’s too soon for Hanover to drop its requirement, which has been in place since August.
“As of yesterday, the state dashboard had Hanover’s total case count at 335, so we are nowhere near low enough in this community to transition yet,” Griffin said Wednesday.
Griffin, who is in touch with officials at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Dartmouth College and SAU 70, said that all involved seem to be leaning toward maintaining indoor mask requirements at least through this month and perhaps until Dartmouth’s spring break begins in mid-March.
“At this point, we will continue to take things one week at a time,” Griffin said.
Robin Steiner, assistant superintendent for SAU 70 in Hanover and Norwich, said school officials will meet following the February vacation next week to look at the local data regarding transmission and hospitalizations, as well as vaccination data for each school.
“Yesterday was actually the first day since we returned to school on Jan. 3, 2022, that we had zero new COVID cases in any of our schools!” she said Thursday. “We are hoping this trend continues after our break next week. ”
To determine when it might be appropriate to change the state’s recommendations in terms of masks in schools and other settings, Dr. Benjamin Chan, New Hampshire’s state epidemiologist, said he is watching the numbers, hospitalizations, deaths and trends in case counts, as well as the roll out of vaccines for children under 5.
The goal is to “be able to pull back on mitigation measures” and get “back to more normal operations,” he said during a Wednesday news conference with Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.
At a Tuesday news conference Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, also indicated that he might consider lifting his state’s recommendation that everyone in schools wear masks. When asked whether Vermont might end masking in schools, he said, “We’re contemplating that,” VTDigger reported.
“The sooner we can get people, kids in particular, back to normal — and that’s without masks — the better,” he said.
But several public health experts have said that it’s too soon to lift mask requirements.
“I would like to see mask mandates stay for now,” said Anne Hoen, an epidemiologist and Geisel School of Medicine professor. “A well-fitting, high-quality mask is a very effective prevention strategy, and they offer good protection against all variants. And we know that mask mandates increase mask use.”
She acknowledged that it’s tempting to let go of masks as the omicron wave recedes, but she said that “COVID deaths in the U.S. are as high as they have been in a year.”
At Wednesday’s news conference, Chan said New Hampshire is averaging seven COVID-19 deaths per day, which is “too high.” While hospitalizations are down from nearly 500 in mid-December, they are still at nearly 200.
Dr. Michael Calderwood, chief quality officer and infectious disease specialist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, said in an emailed statement that it is too soon to lift mask mandates. He said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend masking in areas with substantial or high transmission rates.
To back away from indoor masking, especially for vaccinated people, new cases per 100,000 people in the past week need to be less than 50 and the percent positive PCR tests in the past week needs to be less than 8%, he said.
Both indicators have been trending downward. As of Thursday, New Hampshire was averaging about 77 new cases per 100,000 people and had a PCR positivity of nearly 12%, he said.
On Twitter on Wednesday, Calderwood said he’s been getting lots of questions about when people can stop wearing masks. He tweeted: “Appear to be heading there, but not there yet.”
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
