HANCOCK COUNTY — None of the county’s school districts plan to immediately change their COVID-19 precautions following new federal guidance on masking in schools.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended on Tuesday universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status, as the more aggressive delta variant of the coronavirus drives up cases across the country.
The CDC also issued new guidance recommending that residents should wear masks indoors in public in counties with “substantial” or “high” levels of COVID-19 transmission. Hancock County falls into the CDC’s definition of “substantial.”
The new guidance comes as Hancock County reported 23 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday from the day before, its highest daily case count since mid-May. The Indiana State Department of Health also downgraded the county’s COVID-19 advisory level Wednesday from blue, the least severe, to yellow, the second least severe.
The CDC’s latest guidance came just days before the first day of classes for the 2021-22 academic year at Hancock County’s public schools. While they plan to require wearing masks on buses, which is necessitated by a federal mandate, they plan to start the school year not requiring masks in buildings.
Harold Olin, superintendent for Greenfield-Central schools, which start today (Thursday, July 29), said he believes the district’s position on masks is more emphatic than many places despite not requiring them in school buildings.
“We did not choose the word ‘optional’ on purpose; we chose ‘recommended’ from the get-go,” for un-vaccinated students, Olin said.
He added he understands some families will send their children to school in masks, while others are strongly opposed to the idea.
“It does put some of the ownership on the parents at this point,” he said.
Olin wasn’t surprised by the CDC’s recommendation.
“Shouldn’t we expect the CDC to recommend the absolutely safest environment?” he said. “We (Greenfield-Central) have to balance what is safest with what is manageable.”
Administrators in the Community School Corporation of Southern Hancock County — which resumes school Aug. 3 — have made wearing masks optional, but are making parents aware of the CDC’s recommendation.
Wes Anderson, communications director for the district, said the school board approved the current guidelines, which state students will not be required to wear face coverings unless mandated by the governor, Indiana State Department of Health or Hancock County Health Department.
“If the recommendation from the CDC changes to a requirement, then we’ll revisit and have to comply,” Anderson said.
Mt. Vernon, which also starts today, has a tiered health and safety system that encourages masks, and, if necessary, requires them if absences due to combined illness in a building reach certain levels. Like Southern Hancock, it also will look to the county and state health departments to determine whether their mask policy becomes more stringent.
“The CDC helps to inform the Indiana Department of Health, which disseminates guidance to each county health department,” Mt. Vernon told the Daily Reporter in a statement. “We will wait to make any changes until we receive guidance from the Indiana Health Department and our local Hancock County Health Department.”
The state health department had yet to issue any guidance on the matter by the Daily Reporter’s deadline Wednesday, and county health department officials could not be reached for comment by that deadline either.
The new superintendent of Eastern Hancock schools, George Philhower, said the corporation so far has no plans to change its policy, which will not require masks when students return on Aug. 4.
“As of right now, we are moving forward as planned,” he said.
The additional guidance on Tuesday recommending residents in counties with “substantial” or “high” levels of COVID-19 transmission wear masks indoors in public is meant to thwart the spread of the delta variant, according to the CDC.
Per the CDC, an area has a substantial transmission level when it has 50 to 99.99 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the previous seven days. An area has high transmission when there have been 100 or more cases per 100,000 people in the previous seven days.
The CDC reported on Wednesday that Hancock County has had 46 new cases in the past seven days, or 58.85 per 100,000 people, placing it over the threshold for substantial transmission.
Kristy Deer, Jessica Karins and Shelley Swift of the Daily Reporter staff contributed to this story.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”By the numbers” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
COVID-19 data as of early Wednesday, July 28
Hancock County
- 209 new tests administered (July 19-27)
- 23 new cases (July 27)
- 6.1% seven-day (July 15-21) positivity rate all tests, 8.7% cumulative rate
- 0 new deaths
- 118,506 total tests administered
- 8,761 total cases
- 11.1% seven-day (July 15-21) positivity rate unique individuals, 18.8% cumulative rate
- 150 total deaths
- 42,561 residents age 12+ fully vaccinated (64% of that population)
Indiana
- 17,706 new tests administered (April 17, 2020-July 27, 2021), 3,978 new individuals tested
- 1,248 new cases (July 27)
- 6.5% seven-day (July 15-21) positivity rate all tests, 8.4% cumulative rate
- 12 new deaths (July 1-27)
- 11,181,727 total tests administered
- 3,661,081 total individuals tested
- 768,624 total cases
- 13.5% seven-day (July 15-21) positivity rate unique individuals, 21% cumulative rate
- 13,564 total deaths
- 429 total probable deaths
- 61.8% ICU beds in use – non-COVID
- 8.2% ICU beds in use – COVID
- 29.9% ICU beds available
- 20% ventilators in use – non-COVID
- 2.5% ventilators in use – COVID
- 77.5% ventilators available
- Hospital census: 781 total COVID-19 patients (560 confirmed, 221 under investigation)
- Delta variant: 91% of samples in July
- Alpha variant: 3% of samples in July
- Gamma variant: 3% of samples in July
- Not variant of concern: 3% of samples in July
- Beta variant: 0% of samples in July
- Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children: 103 total confirmed cases
- 2,934,389 fully vaccinated individuals age 12+ (50.4% of that population)
- 3,198 breakthrough cases (0.11% of fully vaccinated individuals)
- 152 breakthrough hospitalizations (0.005% of fully vaccinated individuals)
- 46 breakthrough deaths (0.002% of fully vaccinated individuals)
Source: Indiana State Department of Health
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