The Van Buren Cass District Health Department is aligning its recommendations for COVID-19 with guidance shared by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to have optional masking in public settings, including schools. The local health department says now beginning of the Recovery Phase of the pandemic. The masks are still recommended in long-term care facilities, homeless shelters, correctional facilities, jails, and healthcare facilities. The new guidelines also do not release the requirement by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to wear a mask on all buses and other forms of public transportation. Local school districts can still decide to have mask rules, but the Van Buren Cass District Health Department is not recommending them.
