Archdiocese of Miami Schools make face coverings optional

Miami-Dade County, Florida – According to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami announcement made on Tuesday, they are making face coverings optional for unvaccinated and partially vaccinated students whose parents sign opt-out paperwork.

The CDC recommends mask-wearing in public indoor settings, including schools, in areas of substantial or high community transmission.

According to the CDC’s COVID-19 data tracker, Florida was the only state in the nation where transmission was low in nearly every county.

The archdiocese said in a statement that face masks were already optional for fully vaccinated students and teachers who provided vaccination cards to the school or were confirmed through the FL SHOTS database.

“We felt this was the time to live up to what we said all along — that we will study the data and go along with it,” Mary Ross Agosta, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, told the Miami Herald.

In early November, public schools in Broward and Miami-Dade counties allowed parents to opt their children out of wearing masks.

According to Agosta, measures will be put back in place if the data trends negatively again.

Agosta said the archdiocese will keep a close eye on the omicron variant and follow the advice of public health experts.

“The No. 1 priority is the safety of our children and staff,” Agosta said. “Hopefully we don’t see another outbreak of any variant that comes through and this will be a happy time for everybody in schools.”