Wake County announced last week (February 18, 2022) that they will be lifting the indoor mask mandate on March 7, 2022. The mask mandate has been around for the past two school years to protect students and teachers from each other. The decline in COVID cases made Governor Roy Cooper change his guidelines on masks. The CDC (Center Of Disease Control) also changed its guidelines because of the Omicron variant decline. Due to the sudden change in COVID guidelines from the CDC, many school counties quickly adapted to the sudden change in mask mandates, including Wake County public schools. These new procedures will let students and teachers make their own decisions on whether to wear a mask indoors. These new policies also affect transportation to and from school. 

“Originally, due to Federal Regulations, students were required to wear a face-covering while riding on our buses or other school transportation. However, that policy was changed this week and masking is optional on school transportation as well,” said Stephen Mares, Principal of Athens Drive. Though mask mandates have been around for two years now, the cases are currently the lowest this year, the CDC has made these new policies. Tune in to the Athens Oracle soon for more information on this story.