CANTON – As St. Lawrence County moved to a low community level based on CDC guidelines for COVID, some local school districts ended the mask mandate today.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday announced that effective March 2, the mask mandate in schools and childcare facilities would end.

Following the news, county officials which included Dr. Andrew Williams and Interim Public Health Director Jolene Munger, along with Chair Bill Sheridan of the St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators and County Administrator Ruth Doyle reviewed the information.

“The CDC’s new framework for assessing COVID 19 Community Levels emphasizes the rate of new cases in the community, hospitalization rate, and hospital capacity,” said Dr. Andrew Williams, president of the Board of Health. “Fortunately, St. Lawrence County has seen a dramatic decrease in all of these measures over the past several weeks.”

The Governor’s announcement included new metrics identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that establish “COVID-19 Community Levels.” The determination of community levels include; low, medium, and high assessed on a weekly basis.

St. Lawrence County was included in the High COVID-19 Community level designation on Sunday, however upon review by local health officials, it was determined that the county was a Low COVID-19 Community Level as of Feb. 28.

“Based on the most current data – using the most recent 7 day period, the County is in the Low (green) community level. Please note that the data on these measures is constantly updated; however the CDC only updates their map on a weekly basis each Thursday,” Dr. Williams said.

“Consistent with the CDC’s guidance, we support the governor’s decision to discontinue mandatory masking in PreK-12 schools for the county. Masks do remain a useful tool to protect an individual and the community from COVID-19 and other respiratory infections; we encourage individuals to make the decision to continue to wear a mask if they are at increased risk or in a higher risk environment,” he said.

The decision to end the mask mandate is now up to individual school districts. Many from the area have decided to end the mandate, including Ogdensburg, Potsdam and Parishville-Hopkinton.

“Our schools have played an important role in implementing mitigation measures through the pandemic response,” said St. Lawrence County Interim Public Health Director Jolene Munger said.

“These have included mask wearing, vaccination, physical distancing, increased ventilation, and sanitation. St. Lawrence County Public Health thanks all parts of the school systems for their continued support in helping our community get to where we are today, where we lift the mask mandate in our school settings, having achieved a LOW COVID-19 Community Level,” she said.

Chair Bill Sheridan of the Board of Legislators expressed his interest in moving beyond the mask mandate for schools going forward.

“It is encouraging to see COVID-19 restrictions reduced as the number of cases continues to decrease. The County continues to monitor the impact of the latest COVID-19 cases with hopes that eventually all restrictions can be lifted.”

In her address, Governor Hochul indicated that counties and cities can still require masks in schools, and that parents and guardians may still choose to send children to school in masks.