Madison Kwiecinski

News Editor 

mvk5945@psu.edu

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has said that masks will once again be required in all public and private schools, as well as all daycare centers. Wolf’s policy reversal comes at a time during which COVID-19 cases are rising at a dangerous rate, with hospital beds filling across the state. 

The order, which was issued by the Department of Health, will go into effect on Tuesday, September 7th, the day after Labor Day. The order will require teachers, students, and school staff to wear masks when indoors, regardless of vaccination status. The masking order is set to be reevaluated in early October. 

Less than a month ago, Wolf ruled out a state-wide mask mandate, deciding not to impose the restriction from last year. The majority of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts did not choose to impose masking orders of their own this year. However, with the new highly contagious delta variant of COVID, and the states dramatically rising COVID numbers, the mask mandate had to be reevaluated. Pennsylvania is now averaging more than 3,200 new confirmed cases of coronavirus daily. 

“This is a necessary step to keep our students and teachers safe and in the classroom, where they all need to be and where we want them all to be,” Wolf said. Every county in PA is experiencing substantial rates of transmission. Gov. Wolf stated, “Doing nothing right now to stop COVID is not an option.” 

Even more concerning than the overall increased positive cases of COVID is the substantially higher number of children contracting the virus. Acting PA Health Secretary Allison Beam has said there is a tremendous rise in cases occurring among children, with child cases rising by nearly 300 percent  in six weeks. Most of the children testing positive for COVID are under the age of 12 and still unable to receive the vaccine. These children being unable to yet receive the vaccine is another reason a mask mandate among PA schools is beneficial, as there is no other form of protection against the virus for them. 

Wolf’s opinion reversal on the mask mandate has caused friction between him and the Republican-controlled legislature. PA Senate’s President Pro Tempore, Jake Coreman, said in a statement, “It is completely disingenuous for him to flip-flop now when he doesn’t like the choices school districts made…Our position throughout the pandemic has been consistent — we believe in local control.”

Wolf has said that right now, protecting people in schools is more important. Local schools did not enforce their own mask mandate, and with rising cases a policy had to be implemented.

“We need to put politics aside,” Gov. Wolf said. “We need to get back to what matters: Keeping students safe, and keeping students in the classroom.”