According to Gov. Mike DeWine, the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association is “is making a direct appeal to school superintendents, asking all schools in Ohio to require masks for staff and students during this very dangerous surge of Covid-19.”
COVID19 cases are increasing at nearly twice the rate among school-aged kids as compared to the rest of the population. This past week, Ohio saw a 44% increase among school-aged children and only a 17% increase among the rest of us, according to DeWine.
“We all share the goal of keeping our kids in school. Reasonable people may disagree about a lot, but we can all agree that we must keep our children in the classroom so they don’t fall behind and so their parents can go to work and not take time off to watch their kids at home,” he said. “We must also keep our kids in school so we don’t exacerbate the behavioral health challenges kids face by not being in the classroom with other kids.”
“The best way to keep schools open & kids out of quarantine is for those 12+ to get vaccinated. But because those under 12 are too young to be vaccinated, we need all students who come to school to wear a mask until we get through this,” according to DeWine.”
“Covid-19 cases are increasing at nearly twice the rate among school-aged kids as compared to the rest of the population. This past week, we saw a 44% increase among school-aged children and only a 17% increase among the rest of us,” he said.
The data are now clear that there is a higher level of COVID in school districts where masks are not required, DeWine said.