Starting Monday, many parts of St. Louis and surrounding areas will no longer require a mask mandate. As COVID-19 cases continue to decline, we will continue to see more relaxed rules and regulations per the state.
The CDC has announced that with the lifting of the mask mandate there will be a new form of tracking COVID cases in communities. It uses factors including how many covid patients have been admitted to local hospitals in the last week, how many local hospital beds are filled with COVID patients, and how many new COVID cases a county has had in the last week. With the CDC’s new protocol school districts will now be able to set their own public health guidelines when it comes to masking. Businesses can also decide what protocols they feel are needed to protect customers and workers. Emily Wagner, a sophomore at PHS stated, “I’m glad we don’t have to wear masks. I feel like it made it harder to communicate with one another.”