By Tim Mastro

WILMINGTON — Delaware’s indoor mask mandate will end Friday, followed by the school mask mandate March 31.

Gov. John Carney signed a revision to the state of emergency order Monday, which lifts Delaware’s universal indoor mask mandate effective at 8 a.m. Friday. The most recent masking requirement will have lasted 39 days when it expires — much shorter than the first mandate, which was in effect for 388 days from April 2020 to May 2021.

Schools will have to wait a little longer, however, as Gov. Carney temporarily extended the mandate in public and private K-12 schools and child care facilities to expire at 11:59 p.m. March 31. This rule applies to children kindergarten-age and older.

Gov. Carney’s office said the temporary extension gives parents time ​to get their school-age children vaccinated. The March 31 date also allows districts and schools time to consider local mask requirements and gives the Division of Public Health and the Department of Education an opportunity to work with educators on updates to quarantine and contact tracing guidance.

Schools have required masks since the start of this academic year as the state pushed for a full five-day, in-person schedule after spending a majority of 2020-2021 in a hybrid model. The mandate caused some polarizing debate in Delaware, similar to the rest of the country, with parents protesting at school board meetings, some of which had to be postponed or briefly suspended due to safety concerns.

The Delaware State Education Association said in a statement it is “happy to see that the mask mandate in schools will be extended.”

“We believe that masking in schools helps to reduce the spread of COVID in our schools and help keep our students and staff safe and healthy,” it said in its statement. “We hope that during this time our local school boards will be able to formulate their own masking policies that can continue through the end of the school year. We have an open dialogue with the governor and (DOE) Sec. (Mark) Holodick at the state level, and at the district level our local association leaders meet with their district administration to discuss these issues.”

“We don’t know which districts will continue on with their own masking policies and who will not, as this information was just released,” DSEA added. “But, our local leaders will be working at the district level and will be a part of that conversation.”

Gov. Carney said the decline in Delaware’s COVID-19 statistics led to the rollback of the masking requirements.

The state is on the other side of the peak of the surge caused by the highly transmissible omicron variant. Delaware is averaging 472.1 new cases of the virus per day over the last seven days — its lowest seven-day rolling average since Dec. 2. It peaked, averaging 3,383.6 new cases per day, on Jan. 12.

COVID-19 hospitalizations have also been falling steadily. There were 259 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 in DPH’s report on Monday, compared to the Jan. 12 record of 759. It is the lowest hospitalization total since there were 240 hospitalized on Dec. 5.

“We’re in a much better place than we were several weeks ago in the middle of the omicron surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations,” Gov. Carney said in a prepared statement. “I want to be clear about this point — COVID is still circulating in our communities. And the virus still poses a risk of serious illness, particularly among those who are not up to date on their vaccinations. But we have the tools to keep ourselves and each other safe. Get vaccinated. Get your booster. That’s especially important for children, where we continue to see low rates of vaccination.”

“For all the parents out there — the best way to keep your child in school learning, and to prevent them from getting sick, is to get them vaccinated. It’s that simple. I want to thank all Delawareans for taking this threat seriously.”

Also on Monday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said his state’s school mask mandate will stay in effect until March 7. Individual school districts will be free to continue requiring masks after that date if they wish, Gov. Murphy said.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she is reviewing the numbers and did not announce any change in the state’s requirement.

Decisions in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon were announced as state and local governments grapple with which COVID-19 restrictions to jettison and which ones to keep in place.

Meanwhile, California announced plans to end its indoor masking requirement for vaccinated people next week, but masks will still be the rule for schoolchildren in the nation’s most populous state.

The four states are among a dozen with mask mandates in schools, according to the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy. New Jersey’s requirement has been in place since classes resumed in person in September 2020.

Gov. Murphy cited the “dramatic decline in our COVID numbers” in announcing the rollback. The omicron variant fueled a spike in infections over the holidays, but cases in the state are down 50% and hospitalizations dropped off by one-third since last week, he said.

“We are not — and I’ve said this many times — going to manage COVID to zero,” the governor said. “We have to learn how to live with COVID as we move from a pandemic to an endemic phase of this virus.”

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont recommended ending the statewide mandate in schools and child care centers on Feb. 28. New Jersey will roll back the requirement on March 7. Delaware Gov. John Carney said his state’s school mask mandate will run through March.

Oregon’s mask requirements for schools will be lifted March 31. The statewide mask requirement for indoor public places will be lifted no later than the end of March, health officials announced.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said universal mask-wearing in schools “still remains our recommendation,” but she did not fault states for dropping the requirement.

“It’s always been up to school districts,” she said. “That’s always been our point of view and always been our policy from here.”

Delaware’s universal indoor mask mandate was reissued on Jan. 3 when the state reauthorized the state of emergency. It applies to convenience stores, grocery stores, gyms, restaurants, bars, hair salons, malls, casinos and other indoor public places. Churches and other houses of worship are exempt.

Masks are not required outdoors or while eating or drinking in restaurants and bars but should be worn otherwise in those establishments.

Staff writer Joe Edelen and the Associated Press contributed to this story.

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