Rhode Island Officials: School Mask Mandates May Return

A second Rhode Island well being official has not dominated out bringing again faculty masks mandates, whereas talking in a deposition carried out for an ongoing lawsuit introduced by dad and mom upset their youngsters needed to put on masks at college.

“Primarily based on what we all know right this moment, RIDOH wouldn’t suggest a masking mandate be put in place,” Jaime Comella, director of the Heart for COVID-19 Epidemiology on the Rhode Island Division of Well being (RIDOH), mentioned throughout a July deposition, based on a transcript reviewed by The Epoch Instances.

“Until one thing adjustments drastically with a brand new variant that will trigger a rise in pediatric hospitalizations or dying, I don’t foresee masking being mandated in colleges,” she added.

Comella was not conscious that there have been zero pediatric deaths in Rhode Island brought on by COVID-19. In reality, no one below 25 has perished from the sickness, based on RIDOH knowledge.

Comella is the second RIDOH official to not rule out bringing again a masks mandate within the state, the nation’s smallest by measurement.

Dr. James McDonald, the company’s former director, who was nonetheless employed by the division when he spoke in June in a deposition for the case, additionally mentioned a mandate might be introduced again.

The college masks mandate beforehand in place in Rhode Island was lifted in March, based mostly on a call by the well being division and Gov. Dan McKee, a Democrat.

RIDOH and a spokeswoman for McKee didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Letter Questioned

On Could 19, RIDOH despatched out a memo to main faculty directors, saying it beneficial “common indoor masking insurance policies” in colleges situated in counties that the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention designated as having excessive group transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19.

A day later, a letter to oldsters and college students mentioned that college students who examined optimistic for COVID-19, even when they had been vaccinated, “should keep house and isolate for at the least 5 days” and, in the event that they returned to highschool on day 6, “they have to put on a well-fitting masks on the bus, in class, and in any respect school-associated masks.

McDonald claimed the letter was not a mandate. He mentioned compliance was voluntary regardless of using the phrase “should.”

He additionally mentioned he didn’t compose the memo or the letter.

Plaintiffs within the faculty masking case had been instructed by a lawyer with the Rhode Island Workplace of the Legal professional Basic that Comella was “most accountable” for speaking to the Rhode Island Division of Training that the Could 19 memo “ought to be interpreted as recommending that faculty districts situated in ‘excessive’ tier communities mandate the sporting of face masks whereas in class.”

Comella mentioned she didn’t draft the memo, although a working group she’s part of with individuals from different states’ departments did focus on “the ideas” that had been included.

Comella additionally mentioned that oldsters studying the letter can be incorrect to assume it was conveying a masking requirement.