Boston mayor says city’s school mask mandate won’t be lifted when state order ends

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D) on Wednesday said the city will not lift its mask mandate for public schools at the end of the month.

Her announcement comes as Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) announced at a press conference that the state will lift its mask mandate for schools at the end of this month but that districts will be able to to establish their own requirements.

“We won’t be lifting our mask mandate on the 28th in Boston Public Schools,” Wu said, according to NBC Boston.

Wu added that officials want to see “a couple weeks of downward trend before lifting that mask mandate.”

She added that a distinct issue at Boston Public Schools is that “our classrooms are so tight in terms of space and we still have pretty big vaccination gaps within our student population.”

Wu did not specify when the mask mandate could be lifted in Boston schools.

Baker said Wednesday it was “time to lift the mask mandate in schools and give students and staff a sense of normalcy after dealing with enormous challenges over the past two years.”

New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut and Oregon on Monday announced that mask mandates affecting schools and students will be phased out in the coming months. While Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced that New York would drop its mask mandate for businesses, she said the state would not yet do so for schools.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky urged officials to not yet drop their school mask mandates on Tuesday.

Walensky told Reuters that “people are interested in taking masks off,” but added that “right now our CDC guidance has not changed … we continue to endorse universal masking in schools.”