Orange County Mandates Mask-Wearing In Schools

GOSHEN, NY — Masks will be worn in all Orange County schools during the ongoing new coronavirus pandemic. The county's Health Commissioner Dr. Irina Gelman issued an order mandating the use of masks.

Her order is pursuant to the state's Public Heath Law, Section 2100 and requires all public, private and charter kindergarten through 12th grade schools and educational facilities, as well as public and private transportation services providing transportation to and from school.

Gelman said, effective immediately, anyone over the age of 2, and medically able to tolerate a face covering, is required to cover their nose and mouth with a mask or cloth face covering when in a congregate school setting in Orange County.

Acceptable face masks or acceptable face coverings must be worn by all those in school buildings and on all school buses, either public or private, including students, faculty, staff and visitors. They must be worn at all times except for meals and other designated mask breaks unless otherwise medically inadvisable as certified by a student's, employee's or visitor's physician.

"From a communicable disease perspective, the best way to prevent closing schools again is to prevent COVID-19 cases in our schools, and in our community, by keeping prevalence low," Gelman said. "That can be accomplished by wearing masks, socially distancing, staying home if we are sick and seeing a doctor."

The New York State United Teachers had previously called for a statewide order requiring masks in schools.

Andy Pallotta, the union's president, said that making masks mandatory was a critical step toward addressing the reservations that still exist regarding reopening school buildings.

"Nothing is more important than the health and safety of students and educators," he said. "We applaud Orange County for taking this critical step and call on the state to do the same."

Gelman said that the use of masks or cloth face coverings in congregate settings is to be in addition to other control measures, including engineering controls such as implementing social distance practices and physical partitions or barriers, environmental controls such as proper ventilation and administrative controls, such as frequent cleaning and disinfection protocols, according to the district and school safety plan.

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