Northampton joins Accomack in revising mask mandate; negative COVID numbers reported Tuesday

The Northampton County School Board met Tuesday and, as expected, it voted to revise its mask mandate policy to comply with state law.

The Northampton County Public Schools will transition to a mask-optional learning environment for all students in our buildings effective Wednesday, February 23, 2022. 

The school system released the following statement:

“We will continue to strongly encourage mask wearing as a key strategy in our efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our schools and community.

“It is important to note that masks will still be required in certain cases: · Per Federal regulations, students are required to continue wearing masks on school buses. · Students will be required to wear masks when returning to school on days 6-10 after testing positive for COVID-19 or being identified as a close contact of someone who is COVID-19 positive. · All employees, visitors, and volunteers shall continue to wear masks, per Virginia Department of Labor and Industry Standards, which state that school employees are required to wear masks in areas of substantial or high community transmission regardless of vaccination status. Northampton County remains in a “high transmission” phase.  

“As a school division, we will continue to review and update our mitigation strategies to keep our staff and students safe and our schools open for the remainder of the school year. As always, thank you for your flexibility, support, and understanding as we navigate the many challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The Omicron wave on the Eastern Shore burnt out just as quickly as it ignited, and the Eastern Shore reported negative numbers on Tuesday, with the only changed statistic being one test positive being subtracted from Accomack’s tally. All other statistics were unchanged.

.