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Beginning on Monday, Feb. 28, the requirement that students, teachers, and staff wear masks inside Connecticut schools will be lifted, the governor announced, touting the state’s improved COVID-19 data.
The choice whether or not to continue a mandate beyond that date is up to individual school districts.
“I think today with boosters, given vaccines, given the N95 masks, you are in a better position to keep yourself safe, your child is in a better place to keep themselves safe,” Lamont said during a COVID-19 briefing on Monday, Feb. 7.
The move came on the same day that New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy dropped the mandate effective Monday, March 7, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that her state is doing “really, really well,” and announced that she is expected to address the requirement on Wednesday, Feb. 9.
It also came hours after Republican Bob Stefanowski, a Republican challenger for Lamont’s gubernatorial seat, called on him to lift the mandate.
"The Governor has maintained full executive authority over the state for nearly two years and it’s time to end the one-size-fits-all approach for masks in our schools,” Stefanowski said in a statement. “I am calling on the Governor to immediately remove the mandate on masks for Connecticut’s schools.”
Connecticut set a new low in 2022 for its daily COVID-19 positivity rate at 4.77 percent, as the number of patients being treated for the virus in hospitals statewide also hit a new low at 631, down hundreds from last month.
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