BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said Thursday that she was not ready to see Boston Public Schools lift its masking mandate at the end of the month, a day after Gov. Charlie Baker announced that beginning in March the decision of whether to require masks in schools to address COVID-19 spread would be left to local districts.
“The city of Boston is not ready to lift our mask mandate, and so ours will stay in place for the time being,” Wu said at a press conference Thursday morning at City Hall.
The decision does not come without skepticism.
“I think for us as a city we need to all be on the same page and understand what metrics we are using,” said Boston City Councilor Erin Murphy.
The Boston City Council is going to host hearings to get more information from the Mayor’s administration on how they are making COVID-19 policy decisions. One hearing, that will include city employee unions, is Friday and a second one focused on health issues is next week.
City councilors and residents will have a chance to question Wu’s team about all aspects of Covid policy in the city. “Here we are in February in a much better place data wise in regards to coronavirus and numbers going down so shouldn’t we be going in the opposite direction not more restrictive and if we are then please explain why,” said Murphy.
Murphy says the hearing this week will be virtual but they are trying to have next week’s hearing in person.
Mayor Michele Wu already announced the city will lift the proof of vaccination mandate when the health numbers go to a safe level. The criteria is for daily hospitalizations, ICU capacity and COVID-19 community positivity rate. But for the mask mandate-- the Mayor is setting one more benchmark. “We need to see consistent downward trend of these numbers so we are not just seeing dipping above and below, above and below,” said Wu.
Right now when you walk up to anybody in Boston and ask them about masks, no two answers are the same. “I think once more people are vaccinated and once there isn’t any of these spikes we are worried about and all these new variants,” one person said. “It should honestly just be your right to do whatever you want,” another person said.
While Boston continues to have mask and vaccine requirements for indoor public spaces, Wu said schools present a unique challenge because classrooms are tighter spaces that don’t allow for distancing and gaps in vaccination rates, particularly among young students, persist.
The decision to keep masks on in schools comes as City Hall announced a deal with the Boston Teachers Union over COVID-19 vaccine policy that would require all new hires to be fully vaccinated and for the 5 percent of unvaccinated staff in BPS to submit two weekly negative tests during periods of low transmission and to remain out of school buildings during spells of high transmission.
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