PEABODY ― The Peabody Board of Health voted Monday afternoon to recommend that the city implement a mask mandate in public schools and municipal buildings.
The board will send a letter that was written and researched by Sharon Cameron, the city’s health director, to the School Committee ahead of its meeting on Tuesday night.
Peabody has had more than 7,000 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Cameron said that long-term care facilities, once one of the most infectious settings, have decreased to infecting only 7 percent of the city’s population. Meanwhile, the infection rate in people under 19 years old has skyrocketed.
“They’re the biggest slice of the pie,” Cameron said, referencing a pie chart that showed that 19 percent of COVID-19 cases were in people under the age of 19, as opposed to in 2020 when only 2 percent of cases were those under 19. “Students and children represent a significant proportion of cases in Peabody.”
Thomas Durkin, chairman of the Board of Health, said that he was not ready to mandate anything before the School Committee meeting. He said he didn’t want to put his colleagues in an uncomfortable position when the mandate should be declared by the school board.
Anthony Carli, another board member, said that he wanted to make masks mandatory in public schools, but he was pleased with how diligent the business owners of Peabody have been.
“I think business owners are taking this seriously,” Carli said. “A lot of them have signs saying that masks are required.”
While the Board of Health did not vote to mandate anything, board member Dr. Leigh Ann Mansberger said that she is concerned about not taking that action.
“To me, this is about what will keep kids safest while in school,” Mansberger said. “It makes sense to acknowledge environments have changed and masking is an important step to take.”
While the board moved forward with conversation on whether or not it should issue a mask mandate, the public comment section of the Zoom meeting was filled with messages from people disagreeing with the board members.
The commenters wrote about concerns surrounding masks, testing, and vaccination. Most commenters were concerned with governmental overreach where a school-wide mask mandate was concerned.
Despite the comments, the Board of Health did recommend that masks be used indoors at public schools and in municipal buildings.
Mansberger said that the motion proposed might need to be revisited in the future if cases become more severe and Durkin agreed with her.
“I am concerned about where this is leading and I’ll be watching the school committee closely,” said Durkin.
