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Students in the Redwood City School District and throughout San Mateo County can now decide for themselves whether to don a personal face mask at school.
As of Friday, Sept. 23, wearing a mask is now a matter of "personal preference," the first change since a strong recommendation for indoor masking, regardless of vaccine status, went into effect March 1, per a district-wide announcement. San Mateo County is currently in the Centers for Disease Control's lowest level for community spread.
The new recommendation is based on California's SMARTER Plan, the next phase of California’s COVID-19 response that was announced earlier this year. Focused on long-term health and safety, the SMARTER Plan calls for masking when and where risk of disease transmission is high.
People are encouraged to use information about the current COVID-19 Community Levels (CCLs) in their county to decide which prevention behaviors to use and when, taking into account their risk tolerance as well as their susceptibility to severe illness and that of members of their household. The community levels—low, medium and high—are based on hospitalization rates, hospital bed occupancy and COVID-19 incidence during the preceding period.
School staff who are returning from isolation or who were exposed to someone who has tested positive are still required to wear a face mask.
