As blue states drop mask rules, why NC’s attention is on cities more than the governor
As Democratic governors across the country lift mask mandates, attention in North Carolina is not on Gov. Roy Cooper, but on mayors, county health officials and school boards.
That’s because Cooper’s approach to pandemic restrictions shifted last summer to local control.
A winter wave of the omicron variant of COVID-19 is dropping off. And with that drop comes the dropping of mask rules in more areas of the United States, including among Democrats who favored them.
▪ In Nevada, Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak lifted statewide mask rules on Thursday.
▪ In New York state, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul lifted the statewide mask mandate on Thursday, but kept it for schools.
▪ In Illinois, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker is soon lifting statewide mask rules for most indoor places, but holding off on schools so far, the Chicago Tribune reported.
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have been on a steady downward slope for weeks in North Carolina.
There are no statewide mask mandates in North Carolina, and there haven’t been since the summer of 2021. And mask mandates in schools aren’t up to the state government; they are up to local school boards.
Schools and state guidance on masks
The majority-Republican General Assembly included a provision in a larger education bill in 2021 that forced local school districts to vote monthly on mask rules. Cooper signed the bill into law during a time when some parents protested mask policies at school board meetings, an issue that fell largely along party lines.
In Virginia, when Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin took office this year after winning election in fall of 2021, he lifted mask requirements in schools that had them under his predecessor, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. Some states have banned school districts from instilling mask policies, including South Carolina, which is led by Gov. Henry McMaster. But the South Carolina law ended up in the courts, with a judge blocking it, The State previously reported. Youngkin’s recent order also ended up in the courts, with several large school districts allowed to keep mask mandates in schools, WTOP reported this week.
In North Carolina, while there is no law or executive order requiring masks to be worn or not worn in schools, most schools have been following guidance from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services in the Cooper administration. DHHS recommends masks indoors for all students and adults in schools. While those are recommendations, at least one school district faced a threat of legal action from DHHS last year for not following them.
That guidance was tweaked some on Thursday, but the mask recommendation remains.
Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Catherine Truitt, who is a Republican, told lawmakers last week that she wants “goalposts” for lifting mask guidance in schools. The language in the latest school recommendations from DHHS says that schools should require students and staff to wear face masks indoors in areas where there is high or substantial transmission, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It links to the CDC website that tracks transmission. North Carolina’s 100 counties are all in the red as of Thursday.
Of the 115 public school districts, 79 require masks as of Thursday, The N&O reported.
Local mask mandates
Because several cities and counties have mask mandates, residents might think that is a directive from Cooper. It is not. Cities, towns and counties make their own mask rules.
State House Speaker Tim Moore, a Kings Mountain Republican, sent a letter to Cooper on Thursday about school coronavirus rules. He also mentioned local rules.
“Across North Carolina, people are returning to normal activities as Covid cases and hospitalizations have plummeted in recent weeks. Where mask mandates remain in cities and counties across the state, they are generally ignored by many people and businesses,” Moore said.
The state capital city of Raleigh has a mask mandate. This week, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said she’ll revisit the mask issue within weeks and that health officials expect a CDC update soon. Baldwin asked for “patience and grace,” The N&O reported, as she waits to make a decision.
In the state’s other largest metropolitan area, Mecklenburg County could lift its mask mandate as soon as next week. The county health director said that if infections continue to decline, he’ll recommend lifting it next week, the Observer reported on Tuesday.
Waiting on the CDC
Much of the state’s response to mask rules has fallen in line with what the CDC does.
In spring of 2021, Cooper didn’t want to lift the mask mandate until more people were vaccinated. Then the CDC made a sudden announcement in early May that masks could be optional for vaccinated people. Cooper lifted the statewide mandate for most places, then all restrictions at the end of July.
When the delta variant surged in late summer, local mask mandates grew.
It’s more complicated now, because the omicron variant of COVID-19 is much more contagious but also much milder, especially for those who are vaccinated. And leaders including Cooper say they are looking to COVID-19 becoming “endemic.”
“We understand that this virus is going to be with us for a long time, but we need to make sure that we can lead normal lives and live with it, protect ourselves and try to reduce people getting sick and dying from this virus,” he said.
If the benchmark is that COVID-19 becomes endemic, the CDC’s transmission rates may not have the same weight.
This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "As blue states drop mask rules, why NC’s attention is on cities more than the governor."
.jpg)