WALLOWA COUNTY — Schools and other indoor public settings will no longer require people to wear face masks Friday, March 11, about two years after such mandates were first ordered because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release from the Oregon Health Authority.

Earlier in February, the OHA announced that the general indoor mask requirement would be lifted by March 31, with the option of lifting it sooner if conditions improved enough. Feedback from school districts around the state indicated that preparations for the transition could be completed earlier.

The OHA then announced a change Thursday, Feb. 24, as hospitalization numbers drop and are projected to reach levels below those at the start of the surge in the COVID omicron variant, the press release said. At the time, the mandate was set to be lifted on March 19.

Then, on Feb. 28, Gov. Kate Brown announced that Oregon, California and Washington would lift their mandates simultaneously at 11:59 p.m. March 11.

Emergency board meeting

Officials at Wallowa County schools anticipate and welcome the return to local control of any mask mandate.

Mandy Decker, chairwoman of the Enterprise School Board, said the issue was the subject of a special meeting the board held Feb. 27 rather than waiting for its next regular meeting March 14.

At that meeting, the board decided to lift the mask mandate whenever the state decided to do so.

“They decided to support the state’s recommendation to end the mask mandate whenever that happens,” Superintendent Tom Crane said. “They support local control and they support choice of whether to wear masks or not.”

That means families may decide for their children and employees may decide for themselves.

Decker said that Sunday’s decision falls in line with what the board has stated in the past.

“The board has already said we’d like local control. … My opinion is choice is really important,” she said.

Lance Homan, superintendent of Joseph Charter School, said the school board will officially decide if it will take advantage of the option at its next meeting March 14. He declined to speculate on what its decision will be.

However, he said, last summer the board voted to make masks optional. But then the county got hit with a surge in coronavirus cases and the governor and the OHA rescinded local control.

Wallowa Superintendent Tammy Jones was in meetings with other school officials Thursday morning and had already come to similar conclusions as her counterparts elsewhere in the county. She, too, said the school board in Wallowa would consider an official decision on the matter at its next board meeting, March 14.

“Over the next weeks, we’re going to learn more details,” she said, such as about quarantines, isolation, contact tracing and other related issues.

Jones recalled that at the July board meeting, the Wallowa School Board voted — like Joseph did — to make masks optional, a decision rendered moot by the uptick in cases that followed.

“We’ve done our best to live with it,” Jones said, adding that the recent change “is good news for us.”

School officials will find it a relief to not have to enforce the mask mandate. It’s one more thing they have to discipline students over.

“At times, yeah,” it’s been difficult, Enterprise Superintendent Tom Crane said.

Homan agreed, saying, “At times, for sure.”

The OHA statement continued to recommend universal masking in K-12 settings where children are required to attend. Those settings bring together vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, as well as individuals who are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness.

However, local school officials said that while their students are required to attend school, they can do so remotely and are not required to be in the building.

Case numbers subsiding daily

COVID-19 hospitalizations have declined 48% since peaking in late January, the release stated. Over the past two weeks, hospitalizations have fallen by an average of more than 30 a day. On Feb. 28, there were 479 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state. In Region 9, which includes Wallowa County, that number is at 10.

Reported COVID-19 infections also have dropped precipitously in recent weeks. Over the past month, new infections have declined by more than 80%. The seven-day moving average for new cases is 84% lower than at the peak of the omicron surge.