California ends COVID shot requirement to attend school, but some Marin schools requiring masks in some classrooms; county won’t say which schools

Marinscope

State public health officials quietly announced last Friday that children in California won’t have to get the coronavirus vaccine to attend school.

The Associated Press reported that nearly all of the pandemic restrictions put in place by Gov. Gavin Newsom have been lifted, and he won’t be able to issue any new ones after Feb. 28 when the state’s coronavirus emergency declaration officially ends.

“CDPH is not currently exploring emergency rulemaking to add COVID-19 to the list of required school vaccinations, but we continue to strongly recommend COVID-19 immunization for students and staff to keep everyone safer in the classroom,” the department said in a statement.

Activist Jonathan Zachreson who founded the group Reopen California Schools to oppose many of the state’s coronavirus policies said: 

“This is long overdue. … A lot of families have been stressed from this decision and worried about it for quite some time,” he said. “I wish CDPH would make a bigger statement publicly or Newsom would make a public statement … to let families know and school districts know that this is no longer going to be an issue for them.”

As the state’s no-vaxx rule for COVID became more widely known in Marin this week, the Independent Journal reported that four elementary schools in Marin reinstated indoor mask mandates in individual classrooms. Small COVID-19 clusters were reported.

Dr. Matt Willis, the county’s public health officer, declined to name the schools involved.

Vaccination rates among Marin children range from 37% of 5- to 11-year-olds to 71% of 16- to 17-year-olds.