The Pittsburgh Public Schools [PPS] board decided on Wednesday to allow its performing arts students to remove their masks while performing, the same policy the district has for its athletics programs.

Dance students will still be required to wear masks during rehearsals, except when the activity is considered strenuous.

Last week the board put off a proposal to remove the district’s mask mandate entirely for another month in order to gather more information.

Sala Udin, the board president, said he wanted to see what happened to cases during spring break and board member William Gallagher asked if the board could consider calling a special meeting to change the policy sooner.

Gregorio told the board that COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions were so low that it would be safe for the district to remove the mask mandate. He also said that the Allegheny County Health Department told him that other districts have not seen an upsurge in cases after their mask mandates were lifted.

Harbin said she didn’t oppose removing the mask mandate at the moment but was worried that the criteria to allow for masks to come off would not change quickly enough to call for masking to resume if the pandemic’s severity increased.

The policy change would have allowed students to remove their masks, depending on how severe COVID-19 is in the community. If COVID-19 severity became high, masks would be required. If the level was medium, masks would be encouraged. If it was low, masks would be optional.

Allegheny County reported 457 new COVID infections for the week of March 13-19, along with 10 deaths. Since the omicron surge, cases have steadily dropped, and CDC guidance for the area does not call for masking indoors.

— By Oliver Morrison

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PublicSource has been tracking COVID-19’s spread on a daily basis since March 2020. More than a year later, in an effort to direct our resources into enterprise reporting on the pandemic and other important issues, we will cover the Allegheny County Health Department’s weekly briefing on Wednesdays and update the numbers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We may adjust as the prevalence of the coronavirus ebbs and flows. If you have questions or comments, please email PublicSource’s managing editor halle@publicsource.org.