Ohio recommends but doesn't mandate face masks in schools

Jul. 26—COLUMBUS — Ohio will "strongly recommend" that unvaccinated students wear face masks inside the classroom this fall as in-person instruction resumes in K-12 schools.

New guidance to be released on Tuesday will not mandate face masks, social distancing, or other actions, given in part that the hands of the state and local districts will have their hands tied in that area — at least as of the effective date of a new law on Oct. 13.

The recommendations are to be posted at coronavirus.ohio.gov.

The top priority remains vaccinating everyone who is eligible, including older students, teachers, and employees.

Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Ohio's chief medical officer, said the policy recognizes that "there are people in our schools who have not yet chosen vaccination, or who are not yet eligible for vaccination..., and the best science available to us now tells us they can remain very well protected, as they were last year, by applying masking and layered measures that worked so well for us in our schools last year."

He stressed that neither the push for vaccinations nor the wearing of face masks amounts to a government mandate.

"For those districts that do not follow our recommendation for masks for the unvaccindated, remember that parents can still choose to have their children wear a mask in school or while participating in school activities." Dr. Vanderhoff said.

The recommendations would apply to indoor instruction. They also recommend maintaining distance between students of at least three feet, When that isn't possible, schools should instead employ masks, improved air ventilation, regular cleaning, hand-washing, covering of coughs and sneezes, and staying home when sick.

The open ventilation could include open windows in schools whenever possible as well as in buses and other school transportation.

"We learned how to keep people safe in school," said Dr. Patty Manning-Courtney, chief of staff at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. "We learned that...masking, distancing, hygiene, ventilation — those things work, and our schools have a whole year of practice doing that."

All of this is being done within the context of a new state law that Gov. Mike DeWine signed earlier this month that will prohibit public schools, colleges, and universities from mandating that students take a vaccine not fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

It also prohibits such schools from otherwise discriminating against the unvaccinated such as requiring certain people to wear masks but not others.

But that law does not take effect until Oct. 13, so some individual schools could take it upon themselves to require vaccination against coronavirus during the early weeks of instruction.

The issue could also be rendered moot if the FDA should grant full approval in the meantime to a vaccine. Both Pfizer and Moderna have applied. These two-shot vaccines and the one-shot Johnson & Johnson have been authorized to date for emergency use only.

Dr. Vanderhoff declined to speculate whether the state's guidance may have been different absent that law.

The more virulent Delta variant of the virus has been spurring an increase in infections and hospitalizations in Ohio and elsewhere across the United States with incidents mostly occurring among the unvaccinated.

For now, Ohio's plan does not anticipate that teachers, older students, and school employees will need boosters of their vaccines, despite some indication from Pfizer that some, particularly those with compromised immune systems, may require another dose.

It also remains unclear how far it may be into the school clear when students under the age may become eligible for shots.

The number of those newly taking at the least a first shot of vaccine has slowed to a crawl with the percentage of the state's population still stubbornly below 49 percent. Just 45.7 percent have completed the vaccination cycle.

On Sunday, Ohio reported 495 new cases, lower than in recent days but still above the three-week average, now at 467 and climbing.

In-person instruction in K-12 schools resumed last spring after Mr. DeWine's administration made vaccination of teachers and other school employees a priority. But students under the age of 12 are still not eligible for shots.

Mr. DeWine also lifted all of his health orders, including mandatory masks, for all Ohioans nearly two months ago.