As of Friday, the State of California many school districts throughout the State of California announced they would be getting rid of the mask mandates for students and teachers, however, the Pittsburg Unified School District will keep it.
That means while on Monday as many school districts across Contra Costa County and the State have dropped the mask mandates, Pittsburg will keep their masks on indoors.
As of Sunday, Contra Costa Health Services reported its average new cases per day at just 83 (-28.9%) with 31 (-29.2%) people who are hospitalized. The county stands at 80.9% vaccinated.
The decision was made last week by the school board to keep indoor masking for the time being and it will be revisited at a later date.
Dear PUSD Families,
The State of California announced the indoor mask requirement for k-12 schools expires at the end of the day today, Friday, March 11th. The State communicated that local County Health Departments and local School Districts may make decisions to continue the indoor mask requirement. In order to assist school districts, the California Department of Public Health gave a number of factors to consider, including the impact COVID-19 has had on the local community and the local case rates.
Considering those factors, at Wednesday’s Board meeting, the Board supported my recommendation to continue with the indoor mask requirement in PUSD. We will revisit this at each regular Board meeting and continue to use our local data to guide us.
Outdoor masks are not required. We are continuing our weekly COVID-19 testing at each school site. We are also continuing the COVID-19 testing Monday-Friday that is open to the community at the Pittsburg Youth Development Center.
Vaccinations are available at the Pittsburg Health Center on 2311 Loveridge Road and every Tuesday from 3:30-7:00 at the A Street Clinic at 1818 A Street in Antioch. We are in the process of scheduling a few more vaccination clinics at our schools.
Thank you,
Janet
The announcement came after the State of California announced on February 28 that in California, starting March 1, masks will no longer be required for unvaccinated individuals, but will be strongly recommended for all individuals in most indoor settings. After March 11, in schools and child care facilities, masks will not be required but will be strongly recommended. Masks will still be required for everyone in high transmission settings like public transit, emergency shelters, health care settings, correctional facilities, homeless shelters and long-term care facilities. As always, local jurisdictions may have additional requirements beyond the state guidance.
