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Date: 2/28/2022
BELCHERTOWN – On Feb. 24, the Belchertown Board of Health hosted a virtual meeting to discuss their indoor town-wide mask mandate as well as their school mask mandate and recommendations.
This meeting was off their normal schedule, with Director of Public Health for the town Stephen Bell stating that the meeting was called because of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) announcement on the statewide mask requirement for K-12 schools in Massachusetts which stated that although masks will still be required on school buses per federal order, local school districts will have the option to remove masks in the schools if they wish, starting Feb. 28.
After speaking with the Superintendent and School Committee chair, Bell decided it would be best for them to have a meeting prior to that date since Belchertown’s town-wide mask mandate covers the schools and it was going to affect what happens in the schools.
Bell stated, “The point of this meeting is to discuss the indoor mask mandate that the board put in place back in September and make a recommendation about that and also try to make a recommendation to the School Committee.” He went on to say, “Since the School Committee is going to meet one more time shortly after Feb. 28, we thought that if there was any recommendation that came out of the meeting from the board it would be nice for them to know that prior to the time of the school mandate expiring.”
Bell began the meeting with an update on COVID-19 in the town for the last few weeks. So far, the town’s COVID-19 positive cases have come down. The numbers are in the low 30s, and the town is officially back to pre-omicron levels. In the week prior to the meeting, the town only had 36 cases, which Bell said is a steep drop from their peak in January where they had 306 cases in one week. For vaccination rates in town, the number has been slowly going up and Belchertown has hit 73 percent of residents fully vaccinated.
Based on the way the numbers are going, Bell said he felt that it is time to remove their mask mandate and follow the state’s new advisory. Recently, the State Department of Public Health has changed their mask guidelines. Before the change, their recommendation was for everyone to wear a mask indoor regardless of vaccination status. They have updated that guideline now to say that fully vaccinated people who are not at high risk of severe disease are no longer being recommended to wear a mask indoors where those who are at high risk or live with high-risk people are being recommended to wear a mask, but not mandated.
Chair of the Belchertown Board of Health Jim Potter said, “At this point, masking should be a personal choice not forced upon us, our kids or our businesses. We’ve all suffered long enough, so I support removing the mask mandate completely both for the town and the schools on Feb. 28.”
While Vice Chair Ken Elstein said he is comfortable with allowing the School Committee to determine the policy for the schools, he believes the town mandate is a separate item. “I’m concerned about the 27 percent of our residents that are still not fully vaccinated,” Elstein pointed out. “For the general public, if people are fully vaccinated and not vulnerable then there should not be a mandate for them. I’m really curious about what the state thinks about people who are not fully vaccinated and I’m not ready to lift the overall mask mandate on everybody.”
Bell said the School Committee wants to make the decision regarding extending the mask mandate for the next two weeks ending on March 14. For the town wide mask mandate, Bell said he thinks it’s time, whether they do it effective immediately or effective on Feb. 28, it’s time to stick with the state’s mask advisory.
Board of Health member Hope Guardenier replied, “If you want to wear a mask, I certainly encourage people to continue to wear masks. Please don’t go out when you’re sick. Keep us healthy. Please get vaccinated and boosted if you’re eligible.” She continued, “We really do believe in the science of the vaccines, but everyone is going to make their own choices and I acknowledge that, but I think at this point in where we are there’s just no reason to wait another few days to implement.”
At the end of the meeting, the board made a motion to lift the indoor mask mandate for the town of Belchertown effective immediately.