The new health order that goes into effect March 21st for Sedgwick County will have one change.  County commissioners approved a motion Wednesday to allow school districts to make their own decisions on whether to require masks.

Commissioner David Dennis said he heard from several school districts who wanted the authority to decide on mask requirements.   He said it’s time to turn the decision over to local school boards.    Dennis, commissioner Jim Howell and chairman Pete Meitzner voted to make the change, with commissioners Lacey Cruse and Sarah Lopez voting no.  The health order highly recommends masks in schools, but it will allow school boards to opt out of that portion of the order.

Commissioner Howell made a motion to change the end date for the order to April 9th, rather than April 30th.   That motion failed on a 2-3 vote with Howell and Dennis supporting it.   Commissioners Cruse, Lopez and Meitzner felt that wouldn’t be enough time to look at data from spring break to determine if changes needed to be made in the health order.

The new health order will remove capacity requirements and restrictions on gatherings in Sedgwick County, but it still calls for masks and social distancing.   The county’s local health officer, Dr. Garold Minns, said the county has made a lot of progress with the COVID-19 pandemic, but the virus is still in the community and there is more work to do.  He also said surveys have shown that a significant portion of the county’s population doesn’t want to take the vaccine, and that could slow progress against the virus.    He said health officials also want to keep an eye on the variants of the virus.