GREENSBORO, N.C. — North Carolina Speaker of the House Tim Moore sent out several tweets Monday calling for the state Department of Health and Human Services to drop its mask recommendation for students.
Right now, both major Triad school districts, Guilford County Schools and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, each have mask requirements in place. GCS voted last Tuesday to extend the policy.
Leaders around the country have dropped requirements in their states because they said the pandemic is moving toward an endemic phase. That would mean cases drop to a manageable level, and requirements wouldn't be necessary.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said things are headed in the right direction. He said it still might be too soon to drop restrictions everywhere.
"The general sort of view of this, I think, is that as the pandemic gets better, we should be pulling back on restrictions," Murthy said. "The conversation now is about what should determine when that happens."
North Carolina has seen COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations drop off recently. However, they still remain high. All North Carolina counties are seeing the highest level of transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC website lets you pick the county you live in to see their latest recommendations. Since transmission remains so high, the agency still recommends wearing a mask in public, indoor places in Guilford County,
"We're working on following trends for the moment," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. "I will say our hospitalization rate is still high. Deaths are still high. As we work towards that and are encouraged by current trends, we are not there yet."
All three Triad cities currently have a mask mandate. Greensboro and High Point fall under Guilford County's requirements. The city of Winston-Salem has its own mandate.
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners will meet Thursday to discuss the mask requirement. They could choose to keep it, drop it or extend it past the scheduled March 3 deadline.
Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines listed criteria in October for dropping the city mandate. It had to see a two-week positivity rate at or below 5%, and the five-day average for new cases had to be less than 10 per 100,000.