Seattle schools will drop COVID-19 mask mandate

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Public Schools says it will lift its COVID-19 mask mandate beginning Monday. Late last month Gov. Jay Inslee said the statewide mask requirement for schools would lift on March 12 as cases and hospitalizations have been declining following a surge during caused by the omicron variant. Inslee had said going forward decisions about masking would be left to local districts. In an e-mail to families on Wednesday the Seattle district said masking will be optional as of March 14. Officials said they would continue to monitor health metrics and there may be times when mitigations may need to be re-imposed. The Seattle district is Washington state’s largest, with about 50,000 students.