Peninsula Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry says she and superintendents of the Peninsula’s public school districts were caught off guard yesterday when State Superintendent Chris Reykdal said he will be recommending to Governor Inslee that the statewide mask mandate for students be dropped and the decision for masking options be returned to local public health officials. 

She told the Peninsula Daily News that “A lot of us didn’t see that coming.”  She says local health jurisdictions do not agree with him.

Health officers in the state are in agreement – now is not the time to lift masking mandates in schools. She says health officials will be meeting soon to discuss the metrics for when that mandate can and should be lifted.  She noted that the largest number of positive COVID cases during the past week on the Peninsula were children 10 to 17 years of age.